74.1 million income tax returns filed so far in AY 2023-24
A total of 74.1 million income tax returns (ITRs) have been filed for assessment year (AY) 2023-24 till date, which includes 5.3 million first time filers, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a release on Thursday.
“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,” CBDT said in a release.
As per the time series data release by CBDT, the returns filed by individual taxpayers have increased from 33.6 million in AY 2013-14 to 63.7 million in AY 2021-22, registering an overall increase of 90%.
The proportionate contribution of gross total income of top 1% individual taxpayers vis-à-vis all individual taxpayers has decreased from 15.9% in AY 2013-14 to 14.6% in AY 2021-22, the data showed. While, the contribution of gross total income of bottom 25% individual taxpayers as compared to all individual taxpayers has increased from 8.3% in AY 2013-14 to 8.4% in AY 2021-22.
The proportion of gross total income of middle 74% group of individual taxpayers increased from 75.8% to 77% in the above period and the average gross total income for individual taxpayers increased from about `450,000 in AY 2013-14 to about Rs 700,000 lakh in AY 2021-22 representing an increase of 56%, the data showed.
Net direct tax collections rose from Rs 6.38 trillion in FY14 to `16.61 trillion in FY23.
“This has been made possible due to the taxpayer friendly and taxpayer oriented progressive policies adopted by the government,” the release said.
