Over 2.69 lakh income tax returns were filed for income above Rs 1 crore for the financial year 2022-23, an increase of 49.4 per cent from the pre-pandemic year of 2018-19, while returns filed for income up to Rs 5 lakh rose by 1.4 per cent in the same period, as per e-filing data of the Income Tax Department. In absolute terms, 2.69 lakh income tax returns were filed for income above Rs 1 crore for financial year 2022-23 as against 1.93 lakh for 2021-22 and 1.80 lakh for 2018-19. In comparison with 2019-20, the number of income tax returns filed for 2022-23 rose by 41.5 per cent for tax filers with income above Rs 1 crore, whereas those in the income bracket of up to Rs 5 lakh registered an increase of just 0.6 per cent. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on incomes is visible in a significant pattern in the income tax returns filed - except for the income category of up to Rs 5 lakh, all other income groups saw a decline in the number of income tax returns filed during 2020-21. Income tax returns filed for 2020-21 for income up to Rs 5 lakh increased to 5.68 crore from 4.94 crore in the previous financial year. However, other income groups saw a decrease in returns filed during 2020-21 - for income above Rs 1 crore the number of income tax returns filed dropped sharply to 1.46 lakh from 1.90 lakh in the previous financial year. For income between Rs 50 lakh-Rs 1 crore, income tax returns filed fell to 2.25 lakh in 2020-21 from 2.83 lakh in previous fiscal; for income between Rs 5 lakh-10 lakh, income tax returns filed dropped to 99.36 lakh in 2020-21 from 1.05 crore. The trend has since then reversed, especially with income tax returns filed in the higher income categories seeing an increase in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Income tax returns filed for income above Rs 1 crore increased to 2.69 lakh for the financial year 2022-23 from 1.93 lakh for 2021-22 and 1.46 lakh for 2020-21. For income up to Rs 5 lakh, income tax returns filed also picked up again in 2022-23 to 4.97 crore after seeing a decline to 4.75 crore in 2021-22 from 5.68 crore in 2020-21. Among states, Maharashtra topped with 1.12 crore returns filed for 2022-23, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 75.72 lakh returns filed, Gujarat with 75.62 lakh returns and Rajasthan with 50.88 lakh returns. The share of top income earners in total income tax returns filed, however, has remained broadly constant over the last five years, the data showed. For income above Rs 1 crore, the share of tax returns filed out of the total income tax returns filed stood at 0.3 per cent in 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2021-22. In 2020-21, the share inched lower to 0.2 per cent. However, the share of income tax returns filed for income above Rs 1 crore in the total income tax returns filed has now increased to 0.4 per cent. The majority share of income tax returns filed are in the income category up to Rs 5 lakh - 72.6 per cent share in 2022-23, 74.9 per cent in 2021-22, 79.3 per cent in 2020-21, 75.9 per cent in 2019-20 and 68.3 per cent in 2018-19. The next highest income tax returns filed are in the income range of Rs 5 lakh-10 lakh at 16.6 per cent for financial year 2022-23. For financial year 2021-22, this share stood at 15.9 per cent, higher than 13.8 per cent in 2020-21 but lower than 16.1 per cent in 2019-20. For the current financial year, for which the data is available only till June-end, income tax returns filed for income above Rs 1 crore stood at 8792, slightly over 3 per cent of the total returns filed for this category for previous fiscal. Around 1.02 crore income tax returns have been filed for income up to Rs 5 lakh for 2023-24.
