The Income Tax Department on Wednesday said that over 4.54 crore taxpayers have already filed their income tax returns (ITR) for assessment year 2020-21 (FY2019-20) till December 29.

In a tweet on Wednesday, the Income Tax department nudged taxpayers to file their ITRs by the due date.

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“More than 4.54 crore Income Tax Returns for AY 2020-21 have already been filed till 29th of December, 2020,” the I-T department said.

With respect to last year, 4.77 crore income tax returns were filed. At the close of deadline for filing ITRs without payment of late fees for fiscal 2018-19 (assessment year (AY) 2019-20), over 5.65 crore returns were filed by taxpayers.

The data released by the tax department showed that over 2.52 crore ITR-1 have been filed till December 29, 2020, lower than the 2.77 crore filed till August 29, 2019.

Over 1 crore ITR-4 have been filed till December 29 as compared to 99.50 lakh filed till August 29, 2019.

An analysis of the data showed that individuals filing tax return for fiscal 2019-20 have slowed so far in the current year, while filings by businesses and trusts have increased.

Returns in ITR-1 Sahaj can be filed by an ordinarily resident individual whose total income does not exceed Rs 50 lakh, while form ITR-4 Sugam is meant for resident individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) and firms (other than LLP) having a total income of up to Rs 50 lakh and having presumptive income from business and profession.

Over 33.93 lakh ITR-2 (filed by people having income from residential property) were filed till December 29.

During last year, the due date for filing ITR by individuals who do not need to get their accounts audited was August 31. However, the date has been extended till December 31 this year on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While ITR-3 and 6 are filed by businesses, ITR-2 is filed by people having income from residential property; ITR-5 is filed by LLP and Association of Persons (AoPs). ITR-7 is filed by person in receipt of income derived from property held under trust or other legal obligation wholly for charitable or religious purposes or in part only for such purposes.