The Income Tax department will start a drive in this financial year to track individuals and entities who are required to file tax returns but have failed to do so or evaded taxes. The Income Tax department has already identified 15.2 million such individual taxpayers who have income or have had tax deducted at source (TDS) but have not filed tax returns, sources in the department told the Economic Times.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has asked its field officers to reach out to such individuals from April 15, i.e next week. "Many individuals and entities had their tax deducted at source but did not file returns," a senior official said.
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In 2022-23, approximately 89 million taxpayers were recorded, with 74 million returns filed, including revised returns. As per estimates, 19.7 million individuals have not filed income tax returns (ITR) despite incurring TDS. About 19.3 million were individuals, 28,000 Hindu undivided family, 121,000 firms, and the rest in various other categories, according to the official.
Earlier this month, the Central government said that it has more or less met its tax collection target of over Rs 34.37 lakh crore for 2023-24 on the back of robust economic activity and improved compliance. The government had raised the target for direct tax collection in FY24 (April 2023 to March 2024) to Rs 19.45 lakh crore, while for indirect taxes (GST+ Customs + Excise) the target was lowered to Rs 14.84 lakh crore in the revised estimates (RE) presented in Parliament on February 1, 2024.
Last week, the I-T Department said the income tax return forms, ITR-1, ITR-2 and ITR-4, for FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25) are available for e-filing on its portal. Taxpayers eligible to file their tax returns can now login and fill their ITRs for FY 2023-24 using these ITR forms.
The Income Tax Department has previously made available the offline Excel utilities for ITR-1, ITR-2, and ITR-4. It is now pleased to announce the release of the offline JSON utilities for ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-4, and ITR-6 for Fiscal Year 2023-24 (Assessment Year 2024-25).
There are seven distinct types of Income Tax Return (ITR) forms designed to accommodate various categories of individuals, businesses, and corporations. These include: ITR 1 (Sahaj), ITR 2, ITR 3, ITR 4 (Sugam), ITR 5, ITR 6 ,and ITR7. Notably, Forms ITR‑1 and ITR‑4 are structured to simplify the filing process for a substantial segment of small to medium taxpayers.