Three charts show how just a handful of people pay taxes in India

The number of crorepatis has increased by 22% in AY 2015-16.

Updated on: Dec 21, 2017, 16:18:37 IST

Hindustan Times | By Roshan Kishore

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Income tax department for AY 2015-16 captures India’s income inequality. A handful of people pay the bulk of your tax. Companies account for half of total tax liabilities.

A special camp for government employees to help file their Income Tax Returns (ITRs). (Mint File)

Top 5% of taxpayers paid more than 90% of income-tax India, shows data for assessment year (AY) 2015-16. This is not all. More than 50% of income-tax collections in AY 2015-16 came from the top 0.01% of income-tax payees.

Number of crorepatis has increased by 22% in AY 2015-16. The number grew at a faster pace than total number of tax returns. This was not the case in AY 2014-15.

More than half of the total tax liability in AY 2015-16 was on companies. Individuals, salaried or otherwise, account for one-third of total tax liability. A similar break-up can be seen in the distribution of different sources of total reported income. Business incomes and salary incomes accounted for more than 80% of total reported income in AY 2015-16.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Roshan Kishore
Roshan Kishore is the Data and Political Economy Editor at Hindustan Times. He heads the newsroom's data journalism team, which produces Number Theory, a daily data-driven feature for the print edition and the HT app. Number Theory uses data analysis and story-telling based on it to add value to the newsroom’s daily coverage by putting stories in a larger context on a range of issues, including politics, macroeconomy, markets, global affairs and climate. Under his leadership HT’s data journalism work has established itself as a niche product in Indian journalism and pushed the boundaries of marrying academic rigour with news sense and speed. Along with writing and editing data stories, he has also been writing a weekly political economy column called Terms of Trade for HT Premium. A trained economist with an MPhil degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kishore has also been a visiting fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies of India (CASI) at the University of Pennsylvania. Along with his journalistic work, his writings have also appeared in journals such as the Economic and Political Weekly and working papers for CASI and UNESCAP.Read More