Over 6.63 crore I-T returns for FY '21 filed till March 15

Over 6.63 crore income tax returns (ITRs) have been filed for the 2020-21 fiscal as of March 15, an increase of 16.7 lakh over the tax returns filed last year, the I-T department said on Wednesday.

March 15 was the last date for filing ITRs for 2020-21 fiscal by corporates and other taxpayers who have to file audit reports. The last date for individuals was December 31, 2021.

"More than 6.63 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) were filed for AY 2021-22 on the new e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department as on 15th March 2022... This reflects an increase of over 16.7 lakh ITRs over total filing of ITRs for AY 2020-21 till March 15, 2021," the I-T department said in a statement.

More than 5.43 lakh ITRs were filed on March 15, 2022, compared to 4.77 lakh last year on the due date, while over 13.84 lakh ITRs were filed in the last five days (compared to 11.87 lakh earlier).

Of the 6.63 crore ITRs filed for AY 2021-22, 46 per cent are ITR-1 (3.03 crore), 9 per cent are ITR-2 (57.6 lakh), 15 per cent are ITR-3 (1.02 crore), 26 per cent are ITR-4 (1.75 crore), and 2 per cent are ITR-5 (15.1 lakh), ITR-6 (9.3 lakh) and ITR-7 (2.18 lakh).

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ITR Form 1 (Sahaj) and ITR Form 4 (Sugam) are simpler forms that cater to a large number of small and medium taxpayers.

Sahaj can be filed by an individual having an income of up to Rs 50 lakh and who receives income from salary, one house property/other sources (interest, etc). ITR-4 can be filed by individuals, HUFs and firms with total income up to Rs 50 lakh and having income from business and profession.

ITR-3 is filed by people having income as profits from business/ profession, while ITR-5, 6 and 7 are filed by LLPs, businesses and trusts, respectively.

Further, out of the 6.63 crore ITRs filed for AY 2021-22, more than 6.01 crore have been verified (75 per cent using Aadhaar OTP). Out of the verified ITRs, more than 5.17 crore have been processed and 1.83 crore refunds for AY 2021-22 have been issued till March 15, 2022.

To assist taxpayers with a smooth experience on the portal, over 8,500 taxpayer calls and 260 chats were responded to by the helpdesk only on March 15, 2022 itself.

Two email ids were created to resolve grievances of taxpayers in an expeditious manner related to uploading of ITRs ([e-mail]) and Tax Audit Report (TAR) ([e-mail]). In this regard, 16,252 emails were received, of which 16,233 were resolved by March 15, 2022.

"The department has been proactively engaging with and reaching out to taxpayers and professionals for assistance through its official Twitter handle on a continuous basis and through direct webex calls/webinars for better handholding," it said.

The last date of filing belated return, revised return, linking of Aadhaar and PAN and compliance to the e-proceedings for assessment etc is March 31, 2022.

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