5% more income tax returns filed this year

New Delhi: Income tax returns filed this year have risen by about 5 per cent to nearly 6 crore as more businesses and entities filed annual income statements.

Over 5.95 crore income tax returns (ITRs) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020 (2019-20) were filed by January 10, the Income Tax Department said.

The ITR filing deadline for individuals ended on January 10 while for companies it is till February 15.

The tax department in a tweet said 5.95 crore ITRs for Assessment Year 2020-21 were filed till January 10, 2021, as compared to 5.67 crore ITRs filed for the previous Assessment Year by September 10, 2019.

The total returns for 2019-20 are 33.35 lakh higher than the previous year as total ITRs filed stood at 5.61 crore on the last date which was August 31, 2019.

"We gratefully acknowledge the efforts of our taxpayers & tax professionals," it said sharing the data of ITRs filed for AY2020-21 up to January 10, 2021.

An analysis of the data showed that filing of tax returns by individuals for 2019-20 has slowed in the current year, while filing by businesses and trusts has increased.

Over 2.99 crore ITR-1 were filed till January 10 this year, lower than the 3.11 crore filed till September 10, 2019.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry has rejected the demand for further extension of the last date for filing returns where audit is required beyond February 15.

Last month, the government had extended the income tax return (ITR) filing deadline for individuals till January 10, and for companies till February 15.

"CBDT passes order u/s 119 of Income-tax Act, 1961 in F No. 370153/39/2020-TPL dt 11th January, 2021, disposing off the representations for extension of due date for filing of Audit Report u/s 44AB, in compliance with the order of hon'ble Gujarat High Court dt 8th January, 2021," the income tax department said in a tweet on Monday.