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Taxpayers in India

Income Tax Payers in India

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