Number of people earning over Rs 1 crore annually rises 15 per cent

financialexpress.com:

The number of taxpayers with an annual income of Rs 1 crore and above rose 15% on year to 216,217 as on December 31, 2023, minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The data were compiled after assessing the income tax returns filed for the assessment year (AY) 2023-24. In AY 2022-23, the number of such taxpayers was 187,905. From AY 2019-20 to AY 2021-22, the number of taxpayers earning Rs 1 crore and above rose 16% to 127,256.

Chaudhary further said the total number of individuals who reported income from ‘profession’ in AY 2023-24 is 12,218, up from 10,528 reported in AY 2022-23. In 2019-20, the number was 6,555.

In his response, he mentioned the efforts made by the government to increase the number of taxpayers include pre-filing of income tax returns, filing of new form 26AS, simplification of personal income tax, and expansion of the scope of tax deducted at source (TDS) and tax collected at source (TCS).

“For bringing new tax-payers into the income-tax net, scope of TDS/TCS was expanded by including huge cash withdrawal, foreign remittance, purchase of luxury car, e-commerce participants, sale of goods, acquisition of immovable property, purchase of overseas tour program package, etc.” Chaudhary said.