NEW DELHI: As July 31 is the last date for filing returns for individuals and HUFs, the e-filing website of the income tax department witnessed more than 1.3 crore logins by 6:30 pm on Sunday. According to the income tax department, about 26.76 lakh ITRs had been filed on Sunday till 6.30 pm. More than 6 crore ITRs were filed till July 30.
There was a rush seen on Sunday for filing returns as tax professionals and Chartered Accountants said that there was almost no chance of an extension of the deadline. The tax department in a tweet on Sunday evening urged all those who hadn’t filed ITR for AY 2023-24, to file their ITR at the earliest to avoid last minute rush.
According to the Income Tax website, around 5 core returns were verified while over 3 crore ITRs were processed as on July 29. Recently, chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Nitin Gupta had said in an event that of those who filed income tax returns, about 7% were first-time filers.
According to a recent finance ministry submission in parliament, 7.4 crore tax payers had filed returns in 2022-23 and 6.94 core had filed returns in the year before, showing an increase of 6.18 % in the number of persons filing ITRs in 2022-23 as compared to persons in 2021-22.
There has been greater scrutiny of income tax returns this year. Speaking at the Income Tax Day event earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that about one lakh notices were sent in cases where income was found to be over R50 lakh.