In the past few months, many people have received several SMSs and emails from the tax department—sometimes even twice or thrice a day—reminding them to file tax returns before 31 March 2018. The messages seem to have hit home in many cases.
The number of tax returns filed has increased by more than a quarter (26%)—from 54.3 million in FY17 to 68.4 million in FY18, according to data released by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). There has been a continuous upward movement in the number of tax returns filed in the past 4 years. Between FY14 and FY18, this number has jumped 80.5%. About 38 million tax returns were filed in FY14, and about 68 million were filed in FY18. This includes a large number of new filers too. There were almost 10 million new filers in FY18 (as on 30 March 2018) versus 8.5 million in FY17.
