Record 7.28 Crore Income Tax Returns Filed by July 31

The Income Tax Department has reported a record number of 7.28 crore income tax returns (ITRs) submitted by July 31. Of which, 5.27 crore were submitted under the New Tax Regime for the assessment year 2024-25. Notably, 69.92 lakh ITRs were filed on July 31 alone, writes ETV Bharat's Saurabh Shukla.

New Delhi: As per the latest figures from the Income Tax Department, over 7.28 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) were filed for Assessment Year (AY) 2024-25 by July 31.

This marks a 7.5 percent increase from the 6.77 crore ITRs filed by the same date in 2023 for AY 2023-24. The department observed a significant shift towards the New Tax Regime this year. Of the total 7.28 crore ITRs, 5.27 crore were filed under the New Tax Regime, compared to 2.01 crore under the Old Tax Regime. Therefore, about 72% of taxpayers have chosen the New Tax Regime, while 28% continue with the Old Tax Regime.

On July 31, the filing deadline for salaried taxpayers and other non-tax audit cases, a record 69.92 lakh ITRs were submitted on a single day. During this peak period, the e-filing portal also achieved its highest per-hour filing rate, with 5.07 lakh ITRs processed between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm.

Additionally, 58.57 lakh ITRs were filed by first-time filers within July 31, reflecting an expanded tax base. Of the 7.28 crore ITRs for AY 2024-25, the breakdown is as follows: 45.77 percent were ITR-1 (3.34 crore), 14.93 percent were ITR-2 (1.09 crore), 12.50 percent were ITR-3 (91.10 lakh), 25.77 percent were ITR-4 (1.88 crore), and 1.03 percent were ITR-5 to ITR-7 (7.48 lakh).

Despite numerous social media reports about slowdowns on the income tax portal, the department confirmed that the e-filing system managed high traffic effectively during peak times. On July 31, the portal recorded 3.2 crore successful logins.

As of July 31, over 6.21 crore ITRs have been e-verified, with more than 5.81 crore (93.56 percent) verified using Aadhaar-based OTP. Additionally, over 2.69 crore ITRs for AY 2024-25 (43.34 percent) have been processed. In July 2024 alone, more than 91.94 lakh challans were received through the TIN 2.0 payment system, bringing the total number of challans since April 1, 2024, to 1.64 crore.

The e-filing Helpdesk team addressed approximately 10.64 lakh taxpayer queries up to July 31, offering support via calls, live chats, WebEx, and co-browsing sessions. They also managed queries on the X (formerly Twitter) handle through Online Response Management (ORM), resolving over 1.07 lakh emails between April 1 and July 31, 2024, with a 99.97% percent resolution rate.

The Department encourages taxpayers who missed the deadline to complete their ITR filing as soon as possible.

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