Only 3.24 lakh individuals declared income of Rs 1 crore or more by March 2025, tax data shows

India has a population of about 140 crore. How many of them earn in seven figures, that is Rs 1 crore or more, is answered by the Income Tax Department's official data. According to the data, only 3.24 lakh individual taxpayers with income of Rs 1 crore or more were recorded as of March 2025. The number of people earning above Rs 1 crore has risen steadily over the past ten years.

On returns, the department said a total of 9.19 crore income tax returns (ITRs) were filed in the country as of March 31, 2025. These were submitted by 14.1 crore registered users.

Of the 3.24 lakh individual taxpayers, 2.97 lakh have income between Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore. Of the taxpayers in this bracket, 53 per cent are salaried. The Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore bracket has 16,797 individual taxpayers, while the bracket above Rs 10 crore has 10,184.

If companies, firms, trusts, Hindu undivided families (HUFs) and government entities are added to individual taxpayers, the total number of returns declaring income above Rs 1 crore rises to 4.68 lakh.

The department's data shows a major change in taxpayer numbers between 2013-14 and 2025. In assessment year 2013-14, only 44,078 people had taxable income above Rs 1 crore. The number has grown about five times in the past 10 years.

The number of individual taxpayers filing returns has also risen. It was 3.3 crore in 2013-14 and increased to 7.54 crore in 2023-24.

Another report shows that the Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore income bracket grew by 440 per cent over these 10 years, from 1.9 lakh in 2013-14 to 5.82 lakh. The Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh bracket recorded a rise of 526.5 per cent.

Data on the super-rich and salaried taxpayers has also emerged. In assessment year 2023-24, 23 individual taxpayers declared annual income of more than Rs 500 crore. The Rs 100 crore to Rs 500 crore bracket had 263 taxpayers, of whom only 19 were salaried. The number of salaried taxpayers earning more than Rs 10 crore has fallen by 4.7 per cent.