At 8.18 Crore, 2023 Saw The Highest Number Of ITRs Filed Ever, Reveals Income Tax Department

In the recently concluded year, the highest number of ITRs were filed, the income tax department has revealed in its new year tweet.

How Many ITRs Were Filed In 2023?

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Here¡¯s what the income tax department tweeted:

Record number of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed till 31st December, 2023!

Few highlights:

? 8.18 crore ITRs filed for AY 2023-24 upto 31.12.2023 which is 9% higher y-o-y.
?1.60 crore audit reports and other forms filed.
?AIS facility was used extensively, resulting in¡­ pic.twitter.com/julWcfycLF

¡ª Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) January 1, 2024

Record number of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed till December 31, 2023!

Few highlights:

- 8.18 crore ITRs filed for AY 2023-24 up to 31.12.2023 which is 9% higher y-o-y.

-1.60 crore audit reports and other forms filed.

What Helped Taxpayers File More ITRs In 2023?

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Also Read: Who Was James Wilson? The Man Who Introduced Income Tax In India

As per the income tax department, AIS facility was used extensively, resulting in smoother and faster filing of ITRs. Also, TIN 2.0, a digital e-pay tax payment platform, has enabled real-time credit of taxes to taxpayers which made ITR filing easier & faster.

Moreover, the department claims that the e-filing helpdesk team handled approximately 27.37 lakh queries from taxpayers up to December 31, 2023.

The Income-tax Department has recorded a surge in the filing of Income-tax Returns (ITRs), resulting in a new record of 8.18 crore ITRs for the A.Y. 2023-2024 filed up to December 31, 2023, as against 7.51 crore ITRs filed upto December 31, 2022. This is 9% more than the total ITRs filed for A.Y. 2022-23. The total number of audit reports and other forms filed during the period is 1.60 crore, as against 1.43 crore audit reports and forms filed in the corresponding period of the preceding year.

It is also observed that a large number of taxpayers did their due diligence by comparing data of their financial transactions by viewing their Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS). A substantial portion of the data for all ITRs was prefilled with data pertaining to salary, interest, dividend, personal information, tax payment including TDS-related information, brought forward losses, MAT credit, etc to further ease compliance by taxpayers. The facility was used extensively, resulting in smoother and faster filing of ITRs.

Further, during this F.Y. 2023-2024, a digital e-pay tax payment platform - TIN 2.0 was made fully functional on the e-filing portal, replacing the OLTAS payment system. This enabled user-friendly options for e-payment of taxes such as Internet Banking, NEFT/RTGS, OTC, Debit Card, payment gateway and UPI. TIN 2.0 platform has enabled real-time credit of taxes to taxpayers which made ITR filing easier and faster.

How Did The Income Tax Department Encourage Taxpayers To File ITR?

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As per the Income tax department's press release, to encourage taxpayers to file their ITRs and Forms early, over 103.5 crore outreaches were made through targeted e-mail, SMS and other creative campaigns. Such concerted efforts led to fruitful results with 9% more ITRs being filed for A.Y. 2023-24 till December 31, 2023. The e-filing Helpdesk team handled approximately 27.37 lakh queries from taxpayers during the year up to December 31, 2023, supporting the taxpayers proactively during the peak filing periods. Support from the helpdesk was provided to taxpayers through inbound calls, outbound calls, live chats, WebEx and co-browsing sessions. The Helpdesk team also supported the resolution of queries received on the X (Twitter) handle of the Department through Online Response Management (ORM), by proactively reaching out to the taxpayers/ stakeholders and assisting them with different issues on a near real-time basis.

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