For the assessment year (AY) 2023–24, the number of income tax (I-T) submissions has surpassed 67.7 million, setting a new record. According to the revenue department press release, this amount marks a 16.1% rise over the total tax returns filed during the previous assessment year.
The department got 58.3 million returns for AY23. It stressed that the 5.37 million income-tax returns (ITRs) received from new taxpayers represent a “widening of the tax base”. The number of ITRs filed peaked on July 31, the final day for filing, with over 6.433 million ITRs submitted in a single day, according to the I-T department.
According to the department, different social media marketing, along with targeted email and SMS initiatives, benefited taxpayers in submitting their taxes on time. The department noted that “these concerted efforts yielded encouraging results, with taxpayers filing their ITRs for AY24 significantly earlier than during the same period the previous year”.
It further stated that a substantial number of taxpayers carefully analysed data on their financial activities by reading their Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS).
To make compliance even easier, a large percentage of the data on ITR-1, 2, 3, and 4 was pre-filled with information about salary, interest, dividends, personal details, tax payments, including TDS-related information, carried forward losses, and MAT credit. The department noted that taxpayers made substantial use of this tool, resulting in easier and faster ITR filing.
Out of the total 67.7 million ITRs filed, 49.18 % were ITR-1 (33.3 million), 11.97 % were ITR-2 (8.11 million), 11.13 % were ITR-3 (7.54 million), 26.77 % were ITR-4 (18.1 million), and 0.94 % were ITR-5 to 7 (0.64 million).
The government announced that 56.3 million returns had been e-verified, with over 52.7 million using Aadhaar-based OTP (94%). The department said that as of July 31, more than 34.4 million e verified ITRs for AY24 had been processed (about 60% of the total).
