48.4 lakh individual taxpayers in top-most 30% slab in India

Data for total taxpayers for financial year 2021-22 (assessment year 2022-23) is under compilation as the last date of filing revised return was December 31, 2022, the Finance Ministry said in response to a question in Parliament.

An individual taxpayer falls in 30 per cent tax slab, if his/her aggregate income exceeds Rs 10 lakh and has opted for old tax regime, or his/her aggregate income is more than Rs 15 lakh and has opted for new tax regime, with the exclusion of non-resident Indians, senior citizens and super senior citizens, the ministry said. The ministry used to earlier release annual tax filing data for direct taxes but it has not done so after AY 2018-19.

Total number of taxpayers had recorded a loss of 23.25 lakh in the financial year 2019-20, declining to 6.71 crore from 6.94 crore in the previous financial year 2018-19, government data showed. Total number of taxpayers then again increased to around 6.94 crore in 2020-21 but still remained below the pre-pandemic level of 2018-19 by 24,645 taxpayers. The trend in individual taxpayers in the assessment year 2021-22 shows a shift towards middle-income and high-income categories away from the low-income category of zero to Rs 5 lakh.

In assessment year 2021-22, which broadly refers to the financial year 2020-21, the number of taxpayers in the income group of zero to Rs 5 lakh decreased to 4.11 crore from 4.63 crore in the previous year. However, the number of taxpayers in the income group of Rs 5-10 lakh increased to 1.40 crore in FY21 from 1.12 crore in the previous year.

The overall number of individual taxpayers had declined in FY 2019-20 to 6.29 crore from 6.54 crore in the previous year. The number of individual taxpayers then picked up pace again in FY 2020-21 to 6.33 crore though it remained below pre-pandemic 2018-19 level by over 20 lakh.