The Income Tax Department has, over the years, focused on several measures to ensure ease in compliance of taxpayers and transparent tax administration. In line with transparency in its functioning, the Department had released the Time Series Data of Direct Taxes and Income Tax Return statistics, in various tranches, from time to time.
The data shows that the number of ITR filings has shown a consistent upswing over the last few years. The returns filed by individual taxpayers have increased from 3.36 crore in Assessment Year (AY) 2013-14 to 6.37 crore in AY 2021-22 registering an overall increase of 90%. During the current fiscal too, 7.41 crore returns have been filed for AY 2023-24 till date, including 53 lakh new first time filers. This is an indication of the widening of tax base subsequent to various reform measures put in place by the Department.
In fact, while the overall number of returns of individual taxpayers has shown an increase over the years, there is also an increase in number of returns filed by individual taxpayers across various ranges of gross total income.
i. In the range of gross total income upto Rs. 5 lakh, the number of returns filed by individual taxpayers has increased from 2.62 crore in AY 2013-14 to 3.47 crore in AY 2021-22 registering an increase of 32%. This range of income includes individuals having income below taxable limit who may not be filing returns.
ii. In the range of gross total income of Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh, and Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 25 lakh, the number of returns filed by individual taxpayers from AY 2013-14 to AY 2021-22 has registered an increase of 295% and 291% respectively.
Read more at : Press Release
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