IT Department collected Rs.28 Crore in taxes from new ITR-U filing

The Income Tax Department has received approximately Rs.28 crore in taxes after roughly 1 lakh taxpayers submitted returns using the newly introduced return filing form known as ITR-U, which was notified this year as part of the Budget 2022–23.

According to CBDT Chairman Nitin Gupta, the Union government introduced the programme for the benefit of taxpayers so that they could comply with their tax obligations without running afoul of the law.

ITR-U, which stands for “income tax return-updated,” is the abbreviation that taxpayers can use to submit updated returns for the financial years 2019–20 and 2020–21 or the assessment years 2020–21 and 2021–22.

Within two years of the conclusion of the applicable assessment year, taxpayers may file this form, and they must provide justification for updating their income, such as a previously unfiled return, incorrectly reported income, the selection of the incorrect heads of income, or a reduction in a carried-forward loss.

“About 1 lakh returns have been received (under the ITR-U). The taxpayer can be a new filer or they might have paid more tax than usual. So far, this programme has collected taxes of about Rs.28 crore” Gupta stated in a conversation.

The head of CBDT claimed that taxpayers who receive revenue from online gaming, lotteries, betting, etc. may also take advantage of these programmes.

In order to avoid penalties or other legal action under the income tax legislation, the CBDT chairman said, “This is a provision for them to come forward and pay taxes.”

The income-tax department’s policies are established by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

The Union government’s budget for this year allowed taxpayers to update their ITRs within two years of filing, provided that taxes were paid. This was done to help address any errors or omissions. Only one revised return could be submitted by a taxpayer each assessment year.

The head of CBDT stated that the department is looking at all such enterprises, including internet gaming and betting, and provided the example of taxman raids carried out in February on a group based in Mumbai that was involved in online gaming and betting on cricket.

The tax authority discovered a “cash” turnover of Rs 600 crore made by the company in six months, the CBDT had then stated in a statement.

According to Gupta, the department discovered that this company’s gaming platform had about 8 million (80 lakh) registered users, and the gross earnings that were discovered in this case totaled Rs 58,000 crore over the course of the previous three years.