The taxpayers and tax professionals made their compliances in time, leading to a surge in filing of Income-tax Returns (ITRs), which resulted in a new record of ITRs filed till 31st July 2024. The total number of ITRs for AY 2024-25 filed till 31st July, 2024 is more than 7.28 crore, which is 7.5% more than the total ITRs for AY 2023-24 (6.77 crore) filed till 31st July, 2023. An increasing number of taxpayers have opted for the New Tax Regime this year. Out of the total ITRs of 7.28 crore filed for AY 2024-25, 5.27 crore have been filed in the New Tax Regime compared to 2.01 crore ITRs filed in the Old Tax Regime. Thus, about 72% of taxpayers have opted for the New Tax Regime, while 28% continue to be in the Old Tax Regime.
The filing of ITRs peaked on 31st July, 2024 (due date for salaried taxpayers and other non-tax audit cases) with over 69.92 lakh ITRs being filed on a single day i.e. on 31st July, 2024. The e-filing portal also observed its highest per hour rate of 5.07 lakh of ITR filing between 07:00 pm to 08:00 pm on 31.07.2024. The highest per second rate of ITR filing was 917 (17.07.2024, 08:13:54 am) and highest per minute rate of ITR filing was 9,367 (31.07.2024, 08:08 pm).The Department also received 58.57 lakh ITRs till 31.07.2024 from first time filers, a fair indication of widening of tax base.
In a historic first, ITRs (ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-4, ITR-6) were deployed on the e-filing portal on the first day of the Financial Year ie on 01.04.2024. The ITR-3 and ITR-5 were also released earlier in comparison with the preceding financial years. A lot of emphasis was provided to educate taxpayers about Old and New tax regimes. FAQs and educational Videos on the same were designed and uploaded on the e-filing portal. Focussed outreach campaigns were carried out on Social Media to encourage the taxpayers to file their ITRs early. Along with this, unique creative campaigns were also carried out on different platforms. Informational Videos in 12 Vernacular languages, apart from English and Hindi, were displayed on digital platforms. Outdoor campaigns were also carried out. Such concerted efforts led to fruitful results with increased number of filings.
