More Than 6.63 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) Filed Till Now In AY 2021-22

The Income Tax Department announced on Wednesday that more than 6.63 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) were filed for the assessment year (AY) 2021-22 on the department's new e-filing portal as of March 15, 2022, which was the deadline for filing ITRs by companies and other taxpayers who were required to file a Tax Audit Report.

"As on 15th March 2022 more than 5.43 lakh ITRs were filed (compared to 4.77 lakh last year on the due date) and over 13.84 lakh ITRs were filed in the last 5 days (compared to 11.87 lakh last year on the due date)," the department has said in an official statement.

According to a statement released by the Income Tax Department on March 16, 2022, out of the 6.63 crore ITRs filed for AY 2021-22, 46% are ITR-1 (3.03 crore), 9% are ITR-2 (57.6 lakh), 15% are ITR-3 (1.02 crore), 26% are ITR-4 (1.75 crore), 2% are ITR-5 (15.1 lakh), ITR-6 (9.3 lakh) and ITR-7 (2.18 lakh). This is an increase of nearly 16.7 lakh ITRs above the total number of ITRs filed for the AY 2020-21 to March 15, 2021.

Over 43% of these ITRs were filed utilising the portal's online ITR form, with the remaining ITRs being uploaded using ITRs generated using offline ITR preparation software utilities, including Departmental software, the department has further added in the statement.

Additionally, more than 6.01 crore ITRs have been validated using Aadhaar OTP out of the 6.63 crore ITRs filed for AY 2021-22. More than 5.17 crore ITRs have been processed, and 1.83 crore refunds for the AY 2021-22 have been granted as of March 15, 2022.

And over 99.27 lakh statutory forms, including 26.19 lakh Form 3CB-CD, 2.76 lakh Form 3CA-3CD, 20.9 lakh Form 15CA, 5.4 lakh Form 15CB, 2.27 lakh 10A, 5.86 lakh 10E, 77,634 Form 35, and 23.79 lakh TDS statements, were filed through the new income tax platform in FY 2021-22 till March 15, 2022. The extended deadline for submitting forms 3CFA, 3CEAA, 3CLA, 9A, 10, 10IB/IC/ID, 10CCF, 56FF was March 15, 2022, with over 1.64 lakh files processed by that date.

The Income Tax Department has confirmed in the statement that "To assist taxpayers with a smooth experience on the portal, over 8,500 taxpayer calls and 260 chats were responded to by the helpdesk only on 15th March, 2022 itself. Two email ids were created to resolve grievances of taxpayers in an expeditious manner related to uploading of ITRs ([e-mail]) and Tax Audit Report (TAR) ([e-mail]). In this regard, 16,252 emails were received, of which 16,233 were resolved by 15th March, 2022. In addition to the above, the Department has been proactively engaging with and reaching out to taxpayers and professionals for assistance through its official Twitter handle on a continuous basis and through direct webex calls/webinars for better handholding."

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India has also clarified that it has issued refunds of over Rs. 1,92,119 crore to more than 2.24 crore taxpayers from 1st Apr 2021 to 15th March 2022. Income tax refunds of Rs. 70,373 crore have been issued in 2,21,62,611cases & corporate tax refunds of Rs. 1,21,746 crore have been issued in 2,32,997cases. This includes 1.83 crore refunds of AY 2021-22 amounting to Rs. 37,961.19 crore.

The Department has expressed gratitude to all tax professionals and taxpayers for their assistance in ensuring timely compliance and has also said on behalf of a reminder notice that taxpayers and tax professionals should also keep in mind that the deadline for filing belated returns, updated returns, linking Aadhaar and PAN, and compliance with the e-proceedings for assessment, among other things, is March 31, 2022.