ITR Filing: Income Tax Filers Increase by 120% from 2014 to 2024, Sources Reveal

Income tax filers have increased by 120 per cent during a decade. According to the sources of the Finance Ministry, returns filed with authorities have grown manifolds, especially in the case of tax payers earning more than Rs 50 lakh in a year. Returns filed in this income group increased from 1.85 lakh individuals in 2014 to 9.39 lakh in 2024; such an increase is attributed to the sources as resultant of enhanced compliance amongst this particular group.

As many as over 9.39 lakh have filed annual income of more than Rs 50 lakh for fiscal year 2023-24 - five times more than the 1.85 lakh for fiscal year 2013-14. Income tax liability of those in the bracket of more than Rs 50 lakh has escalated 3.2 times, which now stands at Rs 9.62 lakh crore for 2024 from Rs 2.52 lakh crore in 2014.

The source said 76 per cent of total income tax is now contributed by individuals who earn above Rs 50 lakh every year, which means pressure on the middle class to pay the tax would reduce.
It was because of the robust anti-tax evasion and black money laws that Modi introduced that the number of taxpayers reporting income above Rs 50 lakh had risen considerably, the source added.

The returns from the income segments Rs 4.5-9.5 lakh accounted to 52% in AY 2023-24, where the numbers, during AY 2013-14, were a one-fourth across the segments of Rs 1.5-3.5 lakh. In addition, one in every four returns filed falls under the segment of Rs 5.5-9.5 lakh; further, one in every five persons belonged to the Rs 2.5-3.5 lakh segment, as per the statistics.

The gross total income with an amount of Rs 5.5-9.5 lakh has also became more dominant now, registering over 23% share as against 18% in AY2013-14, though there has been some noticeable shift. Few instances to name are the income in the range of Rs 10-15 lakh becoming the second large contributor with over 12%, followed by 10% in the category of Rs 25-50 lakh range. With this comparison, AY2013-14 was when the group with a Rs 2.5-3.5 lakh income took up the second largest contributor position with a share of 12.8%.

Coming to the source, it is reported that in 2014, people who earned an annual income above Rs 2 lakh were supposed to pay income tax. However, due to the reasons of exemptions and deductions from the Modi government, individuals will now not have to pay taxes if their incomes do not exceed Rs 7 lakh.

The receipt of income tax collected from individuals who earn less than Rs 10 lakh has declined to just 6.22% of total tax paid in 2024 compared with 10.17% in 2014.

According to the source, average income tax liability from Rs 2.5 to Rs 7 lakh was seen at Rs 43,000 for fiscal 2023-24, a proportion of around 4 to 5 percent of their income, observed to be the lowest in emerging economies.

For instance, the source also mentions that official estimates allow for almost 60% tax liability reduction for income earners in the bracket of Rs 10-20 lakh while indexed for inflation for the period of 10 years.
The number of taxpayers filing income tax returns has increased more than fourfold with numbers jumping from over 3.60 crore in the financial year 2013-14 to 7.97 crore in the financial year 2023-24, a growth of more than 121% in the said period.

Income tax department has released recent data, including the numbers of individuals declaring taxable income over Rs 1 crore in tax returns surging from 44,078 in the assessment year 2013-14, essentially the financial year 2012-13, to nearly 2.3 lakh in the assessment year 2023-24, essentially the financial year 2022-23, and one infers a better compliance level and perhaps higher incomes being declared. Accordingly, the numbers of returns filed by individual taxpayers have more than doubled in this period from 3.3 crores to over 7.5 crores, as per the latest data released by the tax department.

"Nearly 52% of salaried taxpayers disclosed an income of Rs 1 crore or more in the latest assessment year compared with 49.2% in AY2022-23 and 51% in AY2013-14."