Over 800,000 income tax returns filed so far for AY 24-25

Over 800,000 income tax returns have already been filed for Assessment Year 2024-25 since the Central Board of Direct Taxes enabled functionalities for commonly used income tax returns from April 1 this year.

According to CBDT data, nearly 829,000 income tax returns had been filed by May 5 for AY 24-25 as eligible taxpayers have started using the opportunity to beat the last minute rush. Of these, 750,000 returns have already been verified by taxpayers and 510,000 of these have also been processed by the department.

To help taxpayers file their returns for AY24-25, the CBDT had made  ITR-1, ITR-2 and ITR-4, which are commonly used by taxpayers, available on the e-filing portal from April 1. Companies can also to file their ITRs through ITR-6 from April 1 onwards.

Taxpayers who do not have to wait for tax deducted at source certificates or are not subject to audits can start to file their ITRs, experts have noted. More taxpayers are expected to file their ITRs in coming weeks and the numbers have already been rising on a daily basis.

However, a bulk of taxpayers may choose to file their income tax returns only by June by when they will get TDS certificates from their employers as well as banks.

The number of returns filed till now are however, only a fraction of the 8.18 crore returns filed for AY 23-24 by December 31, 2023. As many as 75.1 million ITRS were filed for Assessment Year 2022-23 by December 31, 2022.

The CBDT has been working to improve compliance amongst taxpayers as well as timely filing of returns to prevent the last minute rush and calls for extension of due dates. It also leads to pressure on the IT portal with many users facing snags in filing returns.