Income tax returns (ITR) filing: Unbelievable trends mapped! Check them out

Income tax returns (ITR) filing: Although the government has extended the deadline for filing annual income tax returns, probably under the pressure from taxpayers and consultants, official data showed that up to late last week, tax returns filed for the last financial year had surprisingly, more than doubled. 
 
The number of income tax returns increased to nearly 3 crore, with processing of refunds too keeping pace with the higher filings, the report said, citing the data, it added that the number of refund cases cleared so far has also gone up by over 81 per cent to 65 lakh, said a Times of India report said .
 
Quoting sources, the report said the refund amount cleared up to Thursday was almost 35 per cent higher at around Rs 77,700 crore compared to the corresponding period last year when they added up to Rs 57,551 crore. 
 
The new system of processing returns has reportedly helped the government as well as taxpayers close cases earlier with the NDA government also ensuring that refunds are not held up. Sources further told TOI that nearly 60 per cent of the returns that have been been electronically filed this year have already been processed.
 
According to the report, the government is targeting an increase in return filing by individuals and is striving to add 1.25 crore new taxpayers this year in comparison to 1.06 crore filers of the last year. 
 
The spurt in filing was reportedly due to individuals trying to beat the filing deadline of July 31. 
 
Up to Thursday, 3.07 crore e-returns were reportedly filed, which was an 82 per cent increase over the 1.7 crore returns filed up to July 26, 2017. Notably, returns for financial year 2017-18 were 2.96 crore, compared to 1.4 crore a year ago when returns had to be filed for financial year 2016-17. 
 
The TOI report said the I-T department is looking to expand the tax base therefore tapping multiple information sources like property registration to high-value purchases to track those who have either not filed returns or are not disclosing their actual income. 
 
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Once the returns are filed, the government will match them with the information it is receiving from property registrars across the country as well as jewellers, car dealers and high-end watch sellers, among others to tally the returns, it added.