Number of IT returns nearly double in nine years

financialexpress.com:

The total number of income tax returns(ITRs) filed by personal income tax filers (PIT), – individuals and Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) – rose 94% between FY15 and FY23, the first nine years of the Narendra Modi government, according to time series data released by the Income-tax department recently.

As many as 74.6 million PIT returns were filed in FY23, as against 38.4 million in FY15.

This shows significant success of the efforts to expand the taxpayer base and could potentially accelerate revenue receipts in the coming years. PIT collections grew 213% between FY15-FY23, still a growth lower than in the decade before.

A host of factors –digitisation of tax administration, easing compliance burden, rise in income levels, and increased coverage TDS regime – had contributed to the growth in the number of tax filers, said experts.

“Digitisation that has been happening of the tax administration and ease of doing compliance is the core reason behind the surge. The fact that filings have become electronic and there is analytics that’s created on the basis of the transaction data that exists. This helps taxpayers to comply in a more seamless manner,” said Sumit Singhania, partner, Deloitte India.

Sudhir Kapadia, partner, EY said that the introduction of a faceless system of income tax assessment has freed up considerable time and efforts of the Revenue department to focus on intelligent analysis and ensure better tax compliance. “Also, the increased coverage of all types of payments under the TDS regime has ensured data capture at the source of a transaction resulting in greater tax compliance andrevenue collections.”

The PIT returns jumped 23.4% on year in FY18, the financial which followed the demonetisation. In the