By July 31 this year, the number of income tax return (ITR) filers for the financial year 2023-24 (assessment year 2024-25) increased by 7.5% to 7.28 crores. Whereas by July last year, 6.77 crore ITRs were filed for the financial year 2022-23 (assessment year 2023-24). This year, there is a huge increase in the number of taxpayers choosing the new tax regime. Tax experts are hoping that possibly by next year the Finance Ministry may decide to end the old tax regime. In such a situation, questions are arising in the mind that when will the government announce the closure of the old tax regime?
More than 70% of taxpayers liked the new tax regime
About 72 percent of taxpayers have opted for the new tax regime. On these estimated figures, Chartered Accountant Ankita Bhargava says that this data of taxpayers is a big indication that soon or after some time the old tax regime will be abolished. Even in the recent budget, the government has kept away from making any announcement related to giving any kind of benefit to those who have adopted the old regime.
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Another tax expert Sachin Sah said that the budget for the year 2024 shows that the government wants taxpayers to choose the new tax regime. He believes that this is because the new regime has been made very simple and if we look at this year’s figures, only 28 percent of taxpayers are left who have adopted the old regime. In such a situation, it will not be very surprising if Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announces the complete abolition of the old tax regime by next year.
7.28 crore tax returns filed till July 31
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has said in a statement that taxpayers and tax experts showed a lot of interest this time, due to which there is a significant increase in the number of ITR filers. The result of all this is that this time record ITRs were filed till 31 July 2024. The Finance Ministry informed that a total of more than 7.28 crore tax returns were filed for AY 2024-25 till July 31, 2024, whereas 6.77 crore returns were filed for AY 2023-24 till the same date a year ago. This time the number of ITR filers was 7.5% higher as compared to last year.
A total of 7.28 crore ITRs were filed this year for the assessment year 2024-25. Out of which 5.27 crore tax returns were filed under the new regime. Whereas only 2.01 crore returns were filed under the old regime. A huge number of returns have been filed through the new regime as compared to the ITRs filed under the old regime. In this way, about 72% of the taxpayers have opted for the new regime and only 28% of the returns have been filed under the old tax regime.
The deadline for filing tax returns for most taxpayers without penalty and extra charge, except in some cases, was July 31, 2024. There was a lot of activity on the e-filing platform on this date. More than 69.92 lakh ITRs were filed on a single day i.e. July 31, 2024. The e-filing portal also saw its highest rate of filing 5.07 lakh ITRs in an hour between 07:00 pm and 08:00 pm on July 31. The highest per second rate of ITR filing was 917 at 08:13 am on July 17. At the same time, the highest per minute rate of ITR filing was 9,367 on the last day i.e. July 31 at 8:08 pm.
