Income Tax Returns Filing Trends on the New E-Filing Portal

Overview of Income Tax Returns Filed on the New E-Filing Portal

As of December 27, 2021, the Income Tax Department's newly launched e-filing portal has recorded the submission of over 5.77 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs). On December 27, 2021, alone, more than 15.49 lakh ITRs were filed. This trend has continued to grow significantly, with over 7.28 crore ITRs filed for Assessment Year (AY) 2024-25 by July 31, 2024, reflecting a strong increase in compliance and expansion of the tax base.

Breakdown of ITR Categories

For AY 2021-22, among the 4.67 crore ITRs filed, the distribution of returns across various ITR forms is as follows:

• ITR1: 2.5 crore (53.6%)
• ITR2: 41.7 lakh (10.75%)
• ITR3: 50.25 lakh (8.9%)
• ITR4: 1.17 crore (25%)
• ITR5: 5.18 lakh
• ITR6: 2.15 lakh
• ITR7: 0.43 lakh

Notably, over 48.19% of these returns were submitted using the online ITR forms provided on the portal, while the remaining submissions were made through ITRs generated from offline software utilities.

Verification and Processing of Returns

Among the returns filed, over 3.91 crore have been verified. Specifically, more than 3.35 crore were verified using Aadhaar-based One Time Password (OTP) authentication. In a remarkable development, 27.7 lakh Aadhaar OTP requests were made on the e-filing portal within a span of just three days.

As of now, more than 2.88 crore e-verified ITRs have been processed, and over 1.07 crore refunds for AY 2021-22 have been issued.

However, due to certain technical and administrative challenges, a portion of ITRs for AY 2021-22 remained unprocessed beyond the statutory deadline. To address this, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the processing deadline for these returns (specifically those eligible for refunds) to April 30, 2024, ensuring that eligible taxpayers receive their refunds.