Rs 100 crore+ income club sees most entries in 4 years

NEW DELHI: Government on Monday said that there were 576 individuals who had disclosed a gross income of over Rs 100 crore during financial year 2024-25 (assessment year 2025-26), with 161 added during the year.The additions during the year also mark the highest number in at least four years. While it is a small fraction of the around 8.1 crore who filed returns in 2024-25, govt is drawing comfort from the rise in number of taxpayers who are disclosing higher income. Given the rising level of exemptions over the years, more than 60% of those who filed returns regularly have not paid any tax.Most of the taxpayers in the "super rich club" of over Rs 100 crore will be non-salaried, given by past trends. For instance, in FY2022-23, of the 282 in the Rs 100-500 crore bracket, only 16 were salaried, indicating that some of the CEOs of top companies were part of the segment.Unlike earlier years, tax authorities have not released the details of tax returns for the last assessment year, with the latest number disclosed in Parliament only providing a glimpse of the statistics. Typically the data also provides the number of taxpayers with over Rs 500 crore of gross income.During FY2022-23, there were 2.3 lakh individuals with over Rs 1 crore annual income.The Centre has been seeking to widen the direct tax base given the high level of evasion seen among the non-salaried and is relying on multiple sets of data for better tracking. As a result, the share of direct taxes in the overall collection has increased from an average 52% in the pre-pandemic period to 59% in FY2024-25, according to official data.In 2000-01, the share was 36%. Direct tax to GDP ratio was estimated at 6.7% in FY2024-25, compared with 3.3% in 2000-01 and 5.6% in 2013-14.Given the data available and the rise in income levels, the number of tax filers has increased from just above 3 crore in FY2013-14. So far this year, 4 crore returns have been filed for FY2025-26 with July 31 being the deadline.Get the latest Business News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.