National Income Tax Day: All you need to know

National Income Tax Day is observed in India every year on July 24. This date was chosen because income tax was first levied as a duty in India in 1860 on this very day. In 2010, the I-T department for the first time decided to celebrate this day to mark 150 years of levy of the tax. This year, it will be the 162nd occasion of National Income Tax Day.

The first income tax was imposed in India in 1860 by Sir James Wilson, just three years after the First War of Independence in 1857. The tax was meant to compensate the British government, which took over the administration of the Indian holdings of the British East India Company after the revolt.

When the Income Tax Act 1922 was introduced it laid a proper framework for the direct tax administration in the country. In 1924, the Central Board of Revenue was constituted as a statutory body with functional responsibilities for administering the Income Tax Act. In 1963, the Central Board of Revenue was bifurcated, and a separate Board for Direct Taxes known as Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) was constituted under the Central Board of Revenue Act, 1963.