With six days to go, 1.5 crore fewer Income Tax returns filed so far

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 26

Over 4.43 crore income tax returns (ITRs) for the 2020-21 fiscal have been filed till December 25 with no indications of a further extension in the deadline despite the fact that the numbers so far are over 1.5 crore less than last year.

The Income Tax Department said 11.68 lakh returns of 4.43 crore were filed on Christmas.

Of the total, 2.41 crore ITR-1 were filed for fiscal 2020-21 (Assessment Year 2021-22).

ITR-1 form is filed by resident individuals having annual income of below Rs 50 lakh and is considered a marker of the middle class.

The filings so far are just 58 lakh less than the 2.99 crore ITR-1 returns filed for the previous fiscal 2019- 2020 (Assessment Year 2019-20). But the 2.99 crore was lower than the 3.11 crore filed in 2018-2019.

ITR-4 filings have been showing an increase. Last year, over 1.49 crore ITR-4 were filed as compared to 1.29 crore filed in fiscal 2018-19. This year, 1.09 crore ITR-4 returns have been filed so far. ITR-4 Sugam is meant for individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) and firms (other than Limited Liability Partnership) having a total income of up to Rs 50 lakh and having presumptive income from business and profession.

With a few days to go for the deadline, analysts are waiting to find out whether the number of ITR-1 returns will cross last year’s figure of 2.99 crore or the 3.11 crore in the last pre-pandemic fiscal. Over 40 lakh ITR-4 returns have to be filed in the remaining days of the year to touch last year’s record.

The department has been reminding taxpayers to file their returns by sending SMSes and emails.

Last year, the extended deadline for ITR filing for individuals was January 10 and for companies was February 15.