Non-corporate crorepatis tripled in India since 2011

The number of corporate entities that have declared taxable incomes of more than Rs.1 crore has remained roughly the same at around 30,000.

The number of non-corporate entities — including individuals — that have declared incomes of more than Rs.1 crore a year has tripled to 63,589 in 2014 from 19,716 in 2011, according to data with the Income Tax Department.

“Over the period of FY2011-14, the number of non-corporate entities who have declared incomes of more than Rs.10 million [Rs.1 crore] has gone up 3X to 63,589 from 19,716. A non-corporate assessee would broadly correspond to individuals, HUFs, partnerships, association of persons, etc,” a Kotak Institutional Equities analysis of Income Tax Department data on e-filings says.

In the same period, the number of corporate entities that have declared taxable incomes of more than Rs.1 crore has remained roughly the same at around 30,000, according to the report.

Note that this analysis only pertains to e-filings and refers only to gross taxable income, which means that incomes that are exempt from tax such as long-term capital gains tax on equities, dividend income, or income on tax-free bonds are not included in these numbers.

Interestingly, the report finds that e-filing has seen a tremendous increase in use over the years.

While the Income Tax Department received a little over 9 million e-filings at the end of the financial year 2010-11, it has already received thrice that amount in this financial year up to October.

In addition, going by the proportion of e-filers in each income group, it looks like income levels are improving.

Those who earned up to Rs.5 lakh a year made up 84.3 per cent of all e-filers in financial year 2010-11. This proportion decreased to 74.2 per cent by October 2015.

Most of these entities seem to have moved to the next income group (Rs.5-20 lakh a year), which saw its share in e-filings increase from 12.9 per cent to 22.7 per cent in the same period.

Overall, while the absolute number of e-filers with a declared income of more than Rs.1 crore has increased over the years, their share in the total number of e-filers has marginally decreased, from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent.