New Delhi: For the first time in India’s history, personal income tax has surpassed corporate taxes, according to a report by JM Financial Institutional Securities, as cited by Economic Times.As per the report, the share of personal income tax in total direct taxes rose sharply from 38.1% in FY14 to 53.4% in FY24, while corporate taxes declined from 61.9% to 46.6% over the same period.The number of individual income tax return filers also surged, as per the report, from 30.5 million in FY14 to 69.7 million in FY24. Further, including those who pay tax through Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) without filing returns, the taxpayer base nearly doubled from 53.8 million to 99.2 million.TDS collections alone more than doubled from Rs 2.5 trillion in FY14 to Rs 6.5 trillion in FY24, and advance tax payments nearly quadrupled from Rs 2.9 trillion to Rs 12.8 trillion. Together TDS and advance tax payment now account for more than half of total direct taxes.According to the JM Financial Institutional Securities report, higher declared salaries have contributed to the rise in direct taxes. Salaries reported in returns increased from Rs 9.8 trillion in FY14 to Rs 35.2 trillion in FY23, as per the report, growing at 15% annually. Personal tax collections rose alongside, from Rs 2.4 trillion to Rs 8.3 trillion.However, the ground reality is that while salaries have increased for some, particularly in the corporate sector, real wages for regular salaried jobs have not kept up with inflation over the last seven years. According to an analysis by The Hindu of the earnings data for salaried workers, casual labourers, and self-employed persons from Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) reports, real wages, that is the income a worker earns after being adjusted for inflation, were 1.7% lower in the 2024 June quarter (latest data available) compared to the pre-pandemic 2019 June quarter.Meanwhile, the JMFIS report also states that the number of active GST taxpayers rose from 12.4 million in 2019 to 14.7 million in 2024, formalising many previously unregistered businesses.