Income Tax Returns filed annually

ITR filings grew from ~2.2 crore in AY2004 to 9.19 crore in AY2024. Growth was gradual until 2017 (demonetisation + GST compliance push), then accelerated with pre-filled ITR, faceless assessment, and simplified new tax regime. Of ~9 crore filers, about 7 crore paid zero tax (under the basic exemption limit) — reflecting India's still-narrow formal tax base. The tax-to-GDP ratio has improved but remains below the ~18% global average for comparable economies.