The number of income tax returns (ITRs) filed for AY 2024-25 has surged by 7.5% to 7.28 crore till July 31 this year. As many as 6.77 crore ITRs were filed for AY 2023-24 last year till July.
With the number of taxpayers opting for new tax regime increasing significantly this year, tax experts are expecting the Finance Ministry to take a call on discontinuing the old tax regime possibly by next year. So the question comes to mind is when will the government discontinue the old tax regime?
Old tax regime will be scrapped next year?
“This taxpayers’ data (72% tax filers opting for new tax regime) is a big indication that sooner or later the old tax regime will be taken away. Also in the recent budget, the government refrained from giving any more benefits to the old regime takers,” says Ankita Bhargava, a chartered accountant.
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Another tax professional Sachin Sah, Partner, Garg Associates, said that this Budget showed that the government wants taxpayers to move to the New Tax Regime, which has been made simpler; and with just 28% taxpayers under the old tax regime, it won’t surprise anyone if FM Nirmala Sitharaman scraps this earlier tax regime altogether by next year.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry in a statement has said that the taxpayers and tax professionals made their compliances in time, leading to a surge in filing of ITRs, which resulted in a new record of ITRs filed till 31st July 2024.
“The total number of ITRs for AY 2024-25 filed till 31st July, 2024 is more than 7.28 crore, which is 7.5% more than the total ITRs for AY 2023-24 (6.77 crore) filed till 31st July, 2023,” it said.
Old tax regime sees 2.01 crore taxpayers filing ITRs
Out of the total ITRs of 7.28 crore filed for AY 2024-25, 5.27 crore have been filed in the new tax regime compared to 2.01 crore ITRs filed in the old tax regime. Thus, about 72% of taxpayers have opted for the new tax regime, while 28% continue to be in the old tax regime.
The filing of ITRs peaked on 31st July, 2024 (due date for salaried taxpayers and other non-tax audit cases) with over 69.92 lakh ITRs being filed on a single day i.e. on 31st July, 2024. The e-filing portal also observed its highest per hour rate of 5.07 lakh of ITR filing between 07:00 pm to 08:00 pm on 31.07.2024. The highest per second rate of ITR filing was 917 (17.07.2024, 08:13:54 am) and highest per minute rate of ITR filing was 9,367 (31.07.2024, 08:08 pm).
58.57 lakh ITRs filed by first-time return filers
The Income Tax Department also received 58.57 lakh ITRs till 31.07.2024 from first time filers, a fair indication of widening of tax base.
In a historic first, ITRs (ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-4, ITR-6) were deployed on the e-filing portal on the first day of the Financial Year i.e. on 01.04.2024.
The ITR-3 and ITR-5 were also released earlier in comparison with the preceding financial years. A lot of emphasis was provided to educate taxpayers about old and new tax regimes. FAQs and educational videos on the same were designed and uploaded on the e-filing portal.