New Delhi: Showcasing the improved compliance the income-tax returns filings have shown a rise of over 60 per cent this year as compared to the filings from last year. Auguring well for the government finances, the IT Returns has hit the five crore mark on August 30, 2018.
Notably, today is the last day for filing IT Returns by salaried individuals and those with business or professional income without the need for an audit.
Interestingly, more than 20 lakh IT Returns were filed on Thursday but the exact number of total number of tax filers would be revealed after August 31, 2018, which is the last day of filing returns as people would file the returns until last minute.
Related: 10 IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS REQUIRED TO FILE INCOME TAX RETURN
The increase in the number of IT Returns filers have increased on the backdrop of persuasion and awareness of taxpayers as well as government’s decision to impose a penalty on anyone filing after the August 31 deadline. The deadline for filing IT Returns was extended by a month to August 31.
It should be noted that until the previous financial year the government had allowed filing until March-end without any penalty. Around 6.8 crore returns were filed by the end of the last financial year. Notably, the number of people filing IT Returns is considerably more than the number of people who pay income tax. Zero tax liability has been declared by almost more than a crore people.
It is claimed by the tax officials that the rush to meet the deadline could also be an indication of improvement in compliance due to the demonetisation of old notes in November 2016. It should be noted that after the Reserve Bank of India informed on Wednesday that 99.3 per cent of old notes had been deposited in the banks and since then the government is being on target of opposition on the efficacy of demonetisation.
According to tax experts, a lot of businessmen have been forced to file returns or disclose higher income for fear of being tracked based on the GST payments and returns.
