Income tax department releases data on crorepati taxpayers

If data from the income tax department's records is taken into account, India had more than 97,000 people earning a taxable income of over ₹1 crore in the financial year 2017-18.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has now come out with a detailed break-up of data collected from income tax returns (ITR). According to the report, the number of crorepati taxpayers in India shot up 20% to 97,689 during assessment year 2018-19 or FY 2017-18. The number of such individuals having taxable income of over ₹1 crore stood at 81,344 during AY 2017-18.

7 things to know about income tax department's statistics:

1) India's super-rich club of those earning taxable income of above ₹500 crore has only 3 individuals. The report doesn't reveal their names.

2) Interestingly, over 1.7 lakh people filed income tax returns with zero income, according to income tax department's data.

3) There were at least 89,793 people in India who earned in between ₹1 crore and 5 crore. In the ₹5-10 crore income bracket, India had 5,132 taxpayers while the ₹10-25 crore range had a little more than 2,000 individuals.

4) If the salary break-up is considered, most of the taxpayers (over 81 lakh) seem to be earning a salary in between ₹5.5 lakh and ₹9.5 lakh. The average salary income in this category is ₹7.12 lakh.

5) If taxpayers across categories like individuals, HUFs, companies, firms, etc are included, the number of those with taxable income of more than ₹1 crore per annum rises to about 1.67 lakh, a 19% jump from the previous year.

6) Over all, more than 5.87 crore income tax returns were filled, as per the statistics generated from e-filed returns (digitally signed, e-verified or where ITRV has been received) submitted up to August 15, 2019.

7) The data revealed that over 5.52 crore individuals, 11.3 lakh HUFs, 12.69 lakh firms and 8.41 lakh companies were among those who filed returns.