A record of 8.18 crore tax returns have been filed until December 31 this fiscal against 7.51 crore I-T returns filed at the end of December 31, 2022, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Monday.

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This is nine per cent more than the total Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed for 2022-23, the CBDT said in a statement.

The total number of audit reports and other forms filed during the period is 1.60 crore, as against 1.43 crore audit reports and forms filed in the corresponding period of the preceding year, it said.

"The Income-Tax Department appreciates taxpayers and tax professionals for making compliances in time, leading to a surge in filing of ITRs, resulting in a new record of 8.18 crore ITRs for the AY 2023-2024 filed up to 31.12.2023 as against 7.51 crore ITRs filed up to 31.12.2022," it said.

It is heartening to note that a large number of taxpayers did their due diligence by comparing data of their financial transactions by viewing their Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS), it said.

A substantial portion of the data for all ITRs was prefilled with data pertaining to salary, interest, dividend, personal information, tax payment including TDS-related information, brought forward losses, MAT credit, etc, to further ease compliance by taxpayers, it said.

The facility was used extensively, resulting in smoother and faster filing of ITRs, it added.

Further, during this financial year, a digital e-pay tax payment platform - TIN 2.0 was made fully functional on the e-filing portal, replacing the OLTAS payment system, it said.

This enabled user-friendly options for e-payment of taxes such as Internet Banking, NEFT/RTGS, OTC, Debit Card, payment gateway and UPI. TIN 2.0 platform has enabled real time credit of taxes to taxpayers which made ITR filing easier and faster, it said.

To encourage taxpayers to file their ITRs and Forms early, over 103.5 crore outreaches were made through targeted e-mail, SMS and other creative campaigns, it said.

Such concerted efforts led to fruitful results with nine per cent more ITRs being filed for 2023-24 till December 31, 2023, it said, adding, the e-filing Helpdesk team handled approximately 27.37 lakh queries from taxpayers during the year up to December 31, 2023, supporting the taxpayers proactively during the peak filing periods.

Support from the helpdesk was provided to taxpayers through inbound calls, outbound calls, live chats, WebEx and co-browsing sessions, it added.