Why Income Tax should be Abolished?
Just over 2 crore Indians, or 1.7% of the total population, paid income tax in the assessment year (AY) 2015-16, according to data released by the I-T department.
The data, released last week, indicates just over 3% of the 120 crore population filed returns.
Of these, 2.01 crore paid Nil Income tax, 9,690 paid tax of over ₹1crore.
Only one individual paid over ₹100 crore in taxes (₹238 crore to be precise).
Maximum amount of 19,931 crore was collected from 2.80 crore tax filers who paid between ₹5.5 lakh to ₹9.5 lakh in taxes.
As many as 1.84 crore returns were filed for payment of income tax of less than ₹1.5 lakh or an average of ₹24,000.
Of the 4.07 crore tax returns field in AY 2015-16, close to 82 lakh showed zero or income less than ₹2.5 lakh.
Currently, no income tax is for income up to ₹2.5 lakh.
The combined income of all individual tax filers rose to ₹21.27 lakh crore in AY 2015-16 from ₹18.41 lakh crore in the previous year.
Maximum number of 1.33 crore individuals were in ₹2.5 lakh to ₹3.5 lakh income group in AY 2015-16.
In all, 4.35 crore income tax returns, including those by individuals, were filed in AY 2015-16. Total income declared was ₹33.62 lakh crore. more