Taxpayers In India

The Income Tax Department has recently released the statistics on total Taxpayers In India. As per the data released by the Government - there were 6,68,09,129 persons or entities that filed an income tax return in FY2017-18 (AY2018-19) against 8,45,14,539 persons/entities registered for income tax efiling.

Tax Return Filed by Type

The following table shows the number of returns filed in each of the financial year with break-up of income tax return filed by type. The reduction in total number of tax returns filed in FY2018-19 is on account of the changes to the Income Tax rules which prohibited filing of returns pertaining to FY2017-18 or FY2016-17 in FY2018-19.

ITR Return Type	FY 2016-17	FY 2017-18	FY 2018-19
ITR-1	2,14,55,515	2,90,67,029	3,17,00,240
ITR-2 (Till AY 2016-17)	21,89,065	3,76,948	43,752
ITR-2 (From AY 2017-18)	-	46,55,177	47,77,808
ITR-2A (For AY 2015-16 & 2016-17)	16,72,759	3,13,934	5,460
ITR-3 (Till AY 2016-17)	9,66,823	1,75,896	9,584
ITR-3 (From AY 2017-18)	-	99,08,934	1,25,11,740
ITR-4S (Till AY 2016-17)	1,18,57,709	44,95,327	77,283
ITR-4 (Till AY 2016-17)	1,23,90,871	29,85,995	1,21,011
ITR-4 (From AY 2017-18)	-	1,27,61,551	1,47,73,246
ITR-5	12,61,922	15,12,496	15,57,596
ITR-6	8,01,115	9,38,620	9,62,573
ITR-7	2,72,258	2,82,997	2,68,836
Total	5,28,68,037	6,74,74,904	6,68,09,129

Number of Income Tax Filers in India

The Income Tax Department divides income tax filers into Ranges based on the total income of tax filer. Range 1 = Income upto Rs.5 lakhs Range 2 = Income between Rs.5 lakhs and Rs.10 lakhs Range 3 = Income between Rs.10 lakhs and Rs.20 lakhs Range 4 = Income between Rs.20 lakhs and Rs.50 lakhs Range 5 = Income between Rs.50 lakhs and Rs. 1 crore Range 6 = Income above Rs. 1 crore Based on the above, the number of income tax filers in India are as follows:

Category	Range 1	Range 2	Range 3	Range 4	Range 5	Range 6
Association Of Persons	1,77,940	4,974	2,824	1,882	934	1,766
Body Of Individuals	5,644	215	102	60	38	59
Company	6,99,180	40,504	40,376	45,528	27,618	54,523
Firm	11,27,002	84,481	57,698	44,618	20,682	18,152
Government	298	2	2	-	-	5
Hindu Un-divided Family	9,74,393	1,48,054	43,174	12,606	2,579	1,344
Artificial Juridical Person	9,362	224	133	98	53	161
Local Authority	3,219	44	38	34	18	81
Individual	4,58,52,470	1,02,69,396	29,66,222	11,16,771	2,05,704	1,02,637
Trust	2,59,502	4,478	1,911	1,330	588	1,443
Total	4,91,09,010	1,05,52,372	31,12,480	12,22,927	2,58,214	1,80,171

Hence, there are nearly 5 lakh taxpayers with income less than Rs.5 lakhs in India.

State-wise Income Tax Filers

The top state with the highest number of Income Tax filers in the country was Maharashtra, followed by Gujarath, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal occupying the top five places. Mizoram had the lowest number of tax filers at 2938.

MAHARASHTRA	10686533
GUJARAT	6604451
UTTAR PRADESH	6072493
TAMILNADU	4537303
WEST BENGAL	4229356
RAJASTHAN	4128911
KARNATAKA	3919473
DELHI (UT)	3643349
PUNJAB	3067644
MADHYA PRADESH	2635445
HARYANA	2481249
TELANGANA	2259002
ANDHRA PRADESH	2210878
KERALA	1718799
BIHAR	1708091
JHARKHAND	1116353
ORISSA	1112074
CHHATTISGARH	1065714
ASSAM	847417
UTTARAKHAND	781893
HIMACHAL PRADESH	525045
JAMMU & KASHMIR	459613
CHANDIGARH (UT)	272594
GOA	232948
PONDICHERRY (UT)	97833
TRIPURA	86334
MANIPUR	52700
FROM STATES OUTSIDE INDIA	49892
ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS (UT)	40818
MEGHALAYA	37465
DADRA & NAGAR HAVELI (UT)	35970
ARUNACHAL PRADESH	23065
DAMAN & DIU (UT)	21839
NAGALAND	21318
SIKKIM	16682
LAKSHADWEEP (UT)	4647
MIZORAM	2938

Mode of Income Tax Filing

The income tax department offers both online and offline modes for

income tax filing. However, eFiling of income tax return had the best growth and was more preferred by taxpayers.

ITR	AY 2017-18	AY 2018-19	Increase(%)
ITR-1 Offline	1,24,45,410	1,40,29,763	12.73
ITR-1 Online	1,26,01,260	1,71,37,194	36
ITR-1 Sub Total	2,50,46,670	3,11,66,957	24.44
ITR-2	46,55,177	46,12,120	-0.92
ITR-3	99,08,934	1,21,49,205	22.61
ITR-4 Offline	90,02,867	96,91,849	7.65
ITR-4 Online	37,58,684	46,84,053	24.62
ITR 4 Sub Total	1,27,61,551	1,43,75,902	12.65
ITR-5	13,15,360	15,03,185	14.28
ITR-6	8,19,063	8,92,103	8.92
ITR-7	2,23,549	2,40,114	7.41
Total	5,47,30,304	6,49,39,586	18.65

Number of People Not Filing Income Tax Return

As on 31/3/2019 there were nearly 8.45 crore taxpayers registered for Income Tax eFiling on the Income Tax portal. However, No of Registered Users as on 31/03/2019 8,45,14,539

Back to Learn

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Income Tax Filers in India: Statistics and Trends FY2018.

According to the data provided in the article, there were 6,68,09,129 persons or entities that filed an income tax return in FY2017-18 (AY2018-19) in India.

The ITR-1 form, which is used by individuals having income from salaries, one house property, and other sources, is the most commonly filed ITR form. In FY2018-19, 3,17,00,240 ITR-1 forms were filed.

The Income Tax Department divides income tax filers into six ranges based on their total income: Range 1 (income up to Rs. 5 lakhs), Range 2 (income between Rs. 5 lakhs and Rs. 10 lakhs), Range 3 (income between Rs. 10 lakhs and Rs. 20 lakhs), Range 4 (income between Rs. 20 lakhs and Rs. 50 lakhs), Range 5 (income between Rs. 50 lakhs and Rs. 1 crore), and Range 6 (income above Rs. 1 crore).

According to the state-wise data provided in the article, Maharashtra has the highest number of income tax filers in the country, with 10,686,533 filers.

The article states that eFiling of income tax returns has seen the best growth and is more preferred by taxpayers compared to offline filing. For instance, in AY2018-19, online filing of ITR-1 forms increased by 36% compared to the previous year.

The article mentions that the reduction in the total number of tax returns filed in FY2018-19 is due to the changes in Income Tax rules, which prohibited filing of returns pertaining to FY2017-18 or FY2016-17 in FY2018-19.

According to the data provided in the article, the "Individual" category has the highest number of income tax filers across all income ranges. In Range 1 (income up to Rs. 5 lakhs), there were 4,58,52,470 individual income tax filers.

The ITR-2 form is used by individuals and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) who have income from profits and gains of business or profession. The ITR-3 form is used by individuals and HUFs having income from profits and gains of business or profession, as well as income from other sources.

According to the state-wise data provided in the article, the Union Territory of Lakshadweep has the lowest number of income tax filers in India, with only 4,647 filers.

While the article does not provide a year-on-year comparison of the total number of income tax filers, it does show the number of returns filed for different ITR forms across three financial years (FY2016-17, FY2017-18, and FY2018-19). This data can provide insights into the changing trends in the number of income tax filers over time.