Mumbai. Record breaking income tax returns (ITRs) have been filed for the assessment year (AY) 2024-25. More than 7.28 crore income tax returns have been filed by the deadline of July 31. Most of these taxpayers have preferred the new tax system.
According to the Income Tax Department, the latest figures show a growth of 7.5% compared to the total 6.77 crore ITRs filed till July 31, 2023, last year. An important trend this year is the shift towards the new tax regime. Of the 7.28 crore ITRs filed, 5.27 crore were under the new tax regime, which is about 72% of the total filings. In contrast, 2.01 crore ITRs were filed under the old tax regime, which is 28%.
It is worth noting that on July 31, the due date for salaried taxpayers and non-tax audit cases, more than 69.92 lakh ITRs were filed in a single day.
5.07 lakh ITRs were filed on the e-filing portal between 7 pm and 8 pm, the highest hourly rate ever, and 9,367 ITRs were filed at 8.08 pm. Additionally, the highest rate of 917 ITRs per second was recorded at 8.13.54 am on July 17.
The department also saw a significant number of first-time filers, with 58.57 lakh new ITRs filed by the deadline, indicating a wider tax base.
For the first time, various ITR forms (ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-4, ITR-6) were made available on the e-filing portal on April 1, the first day of the financial year. ITR-3 and ITR-5 forms were also released earlier than in previous years.
To help taxpayers understand the differences between the old and new tax regimes, the department made educational material available on the e-filing portal, including FAQs and videos. Outreach campaigns on various platforms, including social media and in 12 local languages, further encouraged early filing.
ITR number to be filed in Income Tax Year 2024-25
Out of the 7.28 crore ITRs filed, 45.77% were ITR-1 (3.34 crore), 14.93% ITR-2 (1.09 crore), 12.50% ITR-3 (91.10 lakh), 25.77% ITR-4 (1.88 crore) and 1.03% ITR-5 to ITR-7 (7.48 lakh). Notably, 43.82% of these filings were done using the online ITR utility while the remaining were done using the offline utility.
The tax department said the e-filing portal handled heavy traffic efficiently, providing a seamless experience. There were 3.2 crore successful logins on July 31 alone. The process of e-verification, crucial for initiating ITR processing and issuing refunds, saw over 6.21 crore ITRs e-verified by the deadline, of which 93.56% were through Aadhaar-based OTPs.
ITR Processing Update
As of July 31, over 2.69 crore ITRs were processed for AY 2024-25, accounting for 43.34% of e-verified returns. In July 2024 alone, the TIN 2.0 payment system filed 91.94 lakh challans, while a total of 1.64 crore challans have been filed since April 1, 2024.
The e-filing helpdesk assisted taxpayers throughout the year, handling nearly 10.64 lakh queries as of July 31. The team provided support via calls, live chat, WebEx and co-browsing sessions, resolving over 1.07 lakh email queries with a 99.97% success rate.
The tax department said, “It expresses its gratitude to tax professionals and taxpayers for their support in compliance in filing ITR and forms. Taxpayers are also requested to verify their unverified ITR within 30 days of filing ITR.”
It was also said that the department also urges those taxpayers, who have missed filing their ITR within the due date due to any reason, to complete their filing as soon as possible.
