July 24 to be celebrated as Income Tax Day

"Since income tax was first levied as a duty in the year 1860 and the authority to levy that duty came into force on July 24 of that year, it is proposed to celebrate this day as the Income Tax Investiture Day," a finance ministry official said.

On July 24, 2010, the department will hold a function in the national capital, which would be inaugurated by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

"On this day, some officers would be awarded. Besides, formal logo of income tax department will be adopted," he said.

The income tax department would also celebrate its 150th year of existence from July 24 this year to July 24 next year.

During the year, the department plans to have a commemorative stamp and coins.
Besides various taxpayer services, the income tax department provides e-filing of taxes, online view of tax credit, online tracking of tax refund, centralised processing centre, Aayakar Sewa Kendra, Aayakar Sampark Kendra and modernisation of tax offices.
In the last fiscal, the income tax department mopped up Rs 3.80 lakh crore through direct tax collection.

The income tax department is one of the largest organisations of the central government with over 58,000 personnel spread across 745 offices in 540 locations throughout the country.

It has a customer base of about 3.5 crore taxpayers and over 10 crore permanent account number (PAN) holders.