The number of crorepati taxpayers in India increased five times to 2.2 lakh in the income tax assessment year (AY) 2024, compared to AY 2014, according to a new report. In the last 10 assessment years, while the total number of taxpayers increased by 2.3 times to 8.62 crore in AY24, the growth is quite fascinating in the income group more than Rs 10 lakh, according to a research report from the economic department of State Bank of India (SBI).

Granular analysis indicates the shifting of the middle class in India from an income range of Rs 1.5–Rs 5 lakh in AY14 to Rs 2.5–Rs 10 lakh in AY24. Total income tax returns filed during AY24 increased to 8.6 crore from 7.3 crore in AY22. Of these, total 6.89 crore or 79 per cent of the returns were filed on or before the due date.

“For AY25, 7.3 crore ITRs have been filed by the due date and another 2.0 crore returns are expected to be filed in the remaining financial year till March 2025, thereby taking the total number close to/over 9 crore,” the report mentioned. For AY25, the share of IT returns filed after the due date may drop to around 18-19 per cent.

“This reveals the discipline among tax-payers along with the simplification of IT forms and processes driven by constant efforts of CBDT to build an efficient, digital-heavy filing, verification and return architecture sans hassles,” said the SBI report.

Overall, there have been 5.1 crore more ITRs filed in AY24 over AY15, with the maximum increase registered in Maharashtra, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. “In terms of per cent growth, smaller states of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland have registered more than 20 per cent increase in ITR filed during the last nine years, showed the report.

The estimates show that female tax filers are around 15 per cent of the individual tax filers. Certain states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and West Bengal have a higher share of female tax filers.