7.24 million income tax returns filed in one day, a record: CBDT

The income tax department has received about 58.3 million income tax returns (ITRs), largely from salaried and individual taxpayers, by July 31, officials said on Monday. The latest figures are about the same as that of the previous financial year (2020-21).

On July 31, 7.24 million ITRs had been filed, shattering all previous single-day records (the maximum being 4.9 million in 2019).

During the month alone, over 51.3 million ITRs have been filed, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Monday.
 

The initial pace of e-filing was relatively much slower with the first 10 million ITRs for assessment year 2022-23 (AY 2022-23) being filed only by July 7.

However, it picked up marginally, with about 24.8 million ITRs being filed by July 22, official data showed. 

“With the government announcing that there would be no extension of the due date, there was a surge in filing ITRs. By July 25, 30 million ITRs had been filed, the direct tax body said.

A large number of taxpayers did their due diligence by comparing data of their income by viewing their annual information statement (AIS) and taxpayer information summary (TIS). 
 

A high rate of usage of AIS/TIS data was reflected by the fact that more than 50.3 million taxpayers viewed/downloaded their AIS, it noted. 
 

This year, a large portion of the data for ITR-1 was already pre-filled with salary, interest and dividend income making compliance easier for taxpayers. 


 

For ITRs 2, 3 and 4, apart from this data, property details for rental income, brought forward losses and MAT credit was also pre-filled to further ease compliance for taxpayers, the board highlighted.
 

“During the last financial year, the due date for which was extended till December 31, 2021, saw the same number of returns — 58.9 million —being filed, a government official said.
 

According to the latest rules, a late fee of Rs 5,000 would be payable by those (with an annual income of over Rs 5 lakh) who file their ITR by December 31 of AY 2022-23.
 

Individuals with an annual income of below Rs 5 lakh would have to pay a late fee of Rs 1,000 for delayed return filing.

Besides, those who have outstanding unpaid tax will have to shell out an additional 1 per cent interest per month for delayed filing.
 

The late fee will not apply to those taxpayers whose income is below the taxable limit.
 

Further, a new facility for making tax payment (TIN 2.0) has been launched on the e-filing portal with two banks, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Federal Bank. 
 

Over 73,910 challans have been received through these banks till July 31, totalling Rs 518.5 crore. 
 

The CBDT also said that 39.6 million returns have been e-verified, out of which more than 37.1 million are through Aadhaar-based OTP. Of the e-verified ITRs, more than 30 million ITRs for AY 2022-23 have been processed.