Highest Taxpayers in India in 2026: Latest Verified List
Who is the highest taxpayer in India in 2026? Based on the latest publicly reported individual data, Amitabh Bachchan is the highest tax-paying Indian celebrity for FY 2024-25, with a reported tax payment of ₹120 crore on earnings of about ₹350 crore.
However, that does not mean he is officially India’s highest individual taxpayer overall.
As of 7 August 2026, the Income Tax Department and Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) do not publish a public leaderboard naming every individual taxpayer and ranking them by tax paid. CBDT publishes aggregate statistics on collections, return filers, taxpayers and income ranges instead. Its latest time-series dataset currently covers FY 2000-01 to FY 2024-25.
That distinction is important because many online lists mix celebrity advance tax, individual income tax, company tax expense and total government contributions as though they are the same number.
They are not.
Highest Taxpayers in India in 2026: What Is Actually Verified?
Here is the clearest fact-checked picture from currently available public data.
| Category | Latest verified or reported leader | Amount | Period | What the figure means |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celebrity taxpayer | Amitabh Bachchan | ₹120 crore | FY 2024-25 | Reported personal tax liability/payment |
| Previous celebrity leader | Shah Rukh Khan | ₹92 crore | FY 2023-24 | Advance tax reported by Fortune India |
| Sportsperson in Fortune list | Virat Kohli | ₹66 crore | FY 2023-24 | Advance tax |
| Major listed company tax expense example | TCS | ₹16,033 crore | FY 2025-26 | Consolidated income tax expense |
| Major listed company tax expense example | Infosys | ₹10,521 crore | FY 2025-26 | Consolidated income tax expense |
| Largest reported national exchequer contribution | Reliance Industries | ₹2,16,472 crore | FY 2025-26 | Multiple government payments, not only income tax |
The most important takeaway is that these numbers answer different questions. Comparing Amitabh Bachchan’s ₹120 crore personal tax figure with Reliance Industries’ ₹2.16 lakh crore exchequer contribution would be misleading.
Who Is the Highest Individual Taxpayer in India in 2026?
There is no official publicly available ranking that identifies India’s highest individual taxpayer for FY 2025-26.
The latest well-supported public claim concerns celebrities. Business Standard reported in March 2025 that Amitabh Bachchan paid ₹120 crore in taxes on estimated FY 2024-25 earnings of ₹350 crore, including a final advance-tax instalment of ₹52.5 crore on 15 March 2025. The Economic Times reported the same figures.
So, the accurate wording is:
Amitabh Bachchan is the latest reported highest tax-paying celebrity in India, not necessarily the highest taxpayer among every individual in the country.
Private business owners, investors, company promoters and other wealthy individuals may pay larger amounts without appearing in publicly compiled celebrity rankings.
Is Amitabh Bachchan the Highest Taxpayer in India?
Amitabh Bachchan is the highest reported celebrity taxpayer for FY 2024-25, with tax of approximately ₹120 crore.
His reported income for the financial year was around ₹350 crore, generated through films, television, endorsements and other professional activities. Business Standard reported that his final advance-tax instalment alone was ₹52.5 crore.
The ₹120 crore figure represents a roughly 69% increase over the ₹71 crore attributed to him in Fortune India’s previous FY 2023-24 celebrity tax ranking.
Did Amitabh Bachchan overtake Shah Rukh Khan?
Yes, according to the latest reported celebrity data.
Shah Rukh Khan had topped Fortune India’s FY 2023-24 celebrity advance-tax ranking at ₹92 crore. Amitabh Bachchan’s reported ₹120 crore tax payment for FY 2024-25 is ₹28 crore higher.
But there is another important data-quality issue here.
The ₹92 crore figure for Shah Rukh Khan belongs to FY 2023-24, while Amitabh Bachchan’s ₹120 crore belongs to FY 2024-25. These are consecutive financial years, not two taxpayers being compared within one newly published FY 2024-25 league table.
Latest Reported Highest Tax-Paying Celebrities in India
There is not yet a credible, comprehensive FY 2025-26 celebrity taxpayer ranking from a primary or major financial source.
The most recent individual figure with strong mainstream reporting is Amitabh Bachchan’s FY 2024-25 figure. The last broad celebrity ranking remains Fortune India’s FY 2023-24 advance-tax list.
| Celebrity | Reported tax | Financial year | Data status |
| Amitabh Bachchan | ₹120 crore | FY 2024-25 | Latest separately reported figure |
| Shah Rukh Khan | ₹92 crore | FY 2023-24 | Fortune India ranking |
| Thalapathy Vijay | ₹80 crore | FY 2023-24 | Fortune India ranking |
| Salman Khan | ₹75 crore | FY 2023-24 | Fortune India ranking |
| Virat Kohli | ₹66 crore | FY 2023-24 | Fortune India ranking |
| Ajay Devgn | ₹42 crore | FY 2023-24 | Fortune India ranking |
| MS Dhoni | ₹38 crore | FY 2023-24 | Fortune India ranking |
| Ranbir Kapoor | ₹36 crore | FY 2023-24 | Fortune India ranking |
| Hrithik Roshan | ₹28 crore | FY 2023-24 | Fortune India ranking |
| Sachin Tendulkar | ₹28 crore | FY 2023-24 | Fortune India ranking |
| Kapil Sharma | ₹26 crore | FY 2023-24 | Fortune India ranking |
Fortune India specifically described its FY 2023-24 figures as advance-tax payments. Business Standard and India Today subsequently reported the same ranking and amounts.
That makes the table useful for understanding India’s highest tax-paying celebrities, but it should not be presented as an official Income Tax Department ranking.
1. Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan’s reported ₹120 crore tax payment for FY 2024-25 is the newest high-profile figure available from credible financial reporting.
Business Standard reported estimated earnings of ₹350 crore for the year and a ₹52.5 crore final advance-tax instalment paid on 15 March 2025.
That pushed him ahead of Shah Rukh Khan’s previous ₹92 crore figure from FY 2023-24.
2. Shah Rukh Khan
Shah Rukh Khan topped Fortune India’s FY 2023-24 celebrity taxpayer list with ₹92 crore in advance tax.
His tax figure should not be confused with his net worth, film box-office collections or the turnover of businesses in which he has an interest. Each is calculated differently for tax purposes.
3. Thalapathy Vijay
Thalapathy Vijay ranked second in Fortune India’s FY 2023-24 list with ₹80 crore in advance tax.
His payment put him ahead of Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Virat Kohli for that financial year.
4. Salman Khan
Salman Khan reportedly paid ₹75 crore in advance tax for FY 2023-24, placing him third on Fortune India’s celebrity ranking.
5. Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli paid a reported ₹66 crore in advance tax for FY 2023-24, making him the highest-paying sportsperson in Fortune India’s celebrity ranking.
MS Dhoni followed among cricketers at ₹38 crore, while Sachin Tendulkar paid ₹28 crore and Sourav Ganguly ₹23 crore.
Who Is the Highest Tax-Paying Actress in India?
In Fortune India’s FY 2023-24 ranking, Kareena Kapoor Khan was the highest tax-paying female celebrity, with a reported tax payment of ₹20 crore.
Kiara Advani followed at ₹12 crore and Katrina Kaif at ₹11 crore.
These figures again relate to the FY 2023-24 Fortune India list. A newer comprehensive FY 2024-25 or FY 2025-26 female celebrity ranking has not been established by the same source.
Who Are the Highest Corporate Taxpayers in India in 2026?
This question needs a different methodology.
Companies disclose tax information in audited financial statements, but a company’s current tax, total tax expense, cash taxes paid and contribution to the national exchequer can all be different figures.
A clean all-company FY 2025-26 leaderboard requires the same metric to be extracted from each company’s audited accounts. There is no comparable official CBDT company-by-company ranking currently available in the public time-series data.
Still, audited FY 2025-26 accounts provide useful benchmarks.
TCS tax expense in FY 2025-26
Tata Consultancy Services reported consolidated:
| TCS tax measure | FY 2025-26 |
| Current tax | ₹16,388 crore |
| Deferred tax | -₹355 crore |
| Total tax expense | ₹16,033 crore |
| Profit before tax | ₹65,487 crore |
These figures come directly from TCS’s FY 2025-26 annual report.
TCS therefore provides one of the strongest examples of a very large Indian corporate income-tax charge in FY 2025-26.
Infosys tax expense in FY 2025-26
Infosys reported ₹10,521 crore in consolidated income-tax expense for FY 2025-26.
That comprised ₹11,767 crore of current taxes and a ₹1,246 crore deferred-tax benefit. Its profit before income taxes stood at ₹39,995 crore.
ITC tax expense in FY 2025-26
ITC’s standalone FY 2025-26 accounts reported ₹5,822.16 crore in current tax and ₹659.02 crore in deferred tax for continuing operations.
Again, these figures should be treated as financial-statement tax measures, not necessarily cash tax transferred to the government during exactly the same period.
Is Reliance Industries India’s Highest Taxpayer?
Reliance Industries requires special attention because the figure most frequently quoted online is not simply corporate income tax.
For FY 2025-26, Reliance reported a ₹2,16,472 crore contribution to the national exchequer, up from ₹2,10,269 crore in FY 2024-25. Reliance itself describes the FY 2025-26 amount as its contribution to the national exchequer.
Reliance’s chairman also described the company as the country’s largest contributor to the national exchequer.
However, ₹2,16,472 crore should not be labelled “income tax paid by Reliance.”
A national-exchequer contribution can include several types of taxes, duties and other statutory payments arising across a large conglomerate’s operations.
For a more comparable accounting measure, Reliance’s FY 2025-26 consolidated figures included ₹9,736 crore of current tax and ₹17,816 crore of deferred tax.
That difference demonstrates why headline taxpayer rankings can become distorted when unlike metrics are placed in one table.
Does Mukesh Ambani Personally Pay ₹2.16 Lakh Crore in Tax?
No.
The ₹2,16,472 crore figure belongs to Reliance Industries’ contribution to the national exchequer, not Mukesh Ambani’s personal income-tax bill.
A company is a separate taxable entity from its shareholders and promoters.
Mukesh Ambani’s personal income may include dividends, investment income, capital gains and other sources. His personal tax cannot be inferred simply by looking at Reliance’s tax disclosures or his estimated net worth.
Why Isn’t India’s Richest Person Automatically the Highest Taxpayer?
Net worth and taxable income are fundamentally different.
Imagine an investor owns shares worth ₹5,000 crore. If the market value rises to ₹7,000 crore, their estimated net worth has increased by ₹2,000 crore.
That does not mean they received ₹2,000 crore in taxable cash income.
Tax treatment depends on the type of income, whether an asset has been sold, applicable capital-gains rules, dividends received, business structures and other factors.
For the same reason, billionaire rankings cannot be used to identify India’s highest income-tax payer.
Why Doesn’t the Government Publish a Highest Taxpayer List?
CBDT does publish extensive tax statistics, but these are mainly aggregate datasets.
Its latest time-series publication contains information on direct-tax collection, direct-tax-to-GDP ratios, returns filed, return filers, taxpayers and other system-level measures through FY 2024-25. It does not provide a public named ranking of India’s richest taxpayers.
Taxpayer-specific information is also governed by disclosure provisions under the Income-tax Act. Section 138 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 deals specifically with circumstances in which information relating to an assessee may be furnished to specified authorities or bodies.
So, media rankings usually rely on reported advance-tax information, company disclosures or other publicly available sources rather than a government-issued “top taxpayer” leaderboard.
FY 2025-26 vs AY 2026-27: Which Year Should You Use?
Tax articles often mix financial years and assessment years.
Income earned between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026 is FY 2025-26 and is generally associated with AY 2026-27 for return filing.
The Income Tax Department has specifically clarified that returns for income earned during FY 2025-26 are filed for AY 2026-27 under the Income-tax Act, 1961.
This matters when reading taxpayer rankings because a story published in 2026 may still be discussing tax relating to an earlier financial year.
What Changed in the Highest Taxpayer Ranking?
The public narrative has shifted over the last two reporting cycles.
| Financial year | Reported celebrity leader | Tax |
| FY 2023-24 | Shah Rukh Khan | ₹92 crore |
| FY 2024-25 | Amitabh Bachchan | ₹120 crore |
| FY 2025-26 | No comparable comprehensive public celebrity ranking verified as of 7 August 2026 | Not available |
For FY 2023-24, Fortune India’s ranking directly identified Shah Rukh Khan as the top celebrity advance-tax payer.
For FY 2024-25, multiple financial publications reported Amitabh Bachchan’s ₹120 crore tax figure.
For FY 2025-26, claiming a new celebrity winner without equivalent evidence would be premature.
Common Mistakes in Highest Taxpayer Lists
Several popular taxpayer articles make comparisons that should be treated cautiously.
| Claim | Fact check |
| Amitabh Bachchan is officially India’s highest taxpayer | Too broad. He is the latest reported highest tax-paying celebrity |
| Shah Rukh Khan is still India’s No. 1 celebrity taxpayer | Outdated. Amitabh Bachchan’s newer FY 2024-25 figure is higher |
| Reliance paid ₹2.16 lakh crore in income tax | Incorrect framing. It is a contribution to the national exchequer |
| Mukesh Ambani personally paid Reliance’s tax | Incorrect. Company and personal tax are separate |
| Celebrity rankings come from the Income Tax Department | Usually incorrect. The widely cited FY24 list came from Fortune India |
| Net worth determines tax paid | Incorrect. Tax depends on taxable income and transactions |
| FY 2025-26 has a verified celebrity top-10 ranking | Not supported by a comparable major-source ranking as of 7 August 2026 |
FAQs
Q. Who is the highest taxpayer in India in 2026?
There is no official government ranking naming India’s highest individual taxpayer. The latest widely reported highest tax-paying celebrity is Amitabh Bachchan, who reportedly paid ₹120 crore for FY 2024-25.
Q. How much tax did Amitabh Bachchan pay?
Amitabh Bachchan reportedly paid ₹120 crore in tax for FY 2024-25 on estimated earnings of approximately ₹350 crore.
Q. Who paid more tax, Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan?
Based on the latest reported figures, Amitabh Bachchan’s ₹120 crore for FY 2024-25 is higher than Shah Rukh Khan’s ₹92 crore reported for FY 2023-24. The figures relate to different financial years.
Q. How much tax did Shah Rukh Khan pay?
Fortune India reported that Shah Rukh Khan paid ₹92 crore in advance tax during FY 2023-24, topping its celebrity taxpayer ranking for that year.
Q. How much tax did Virat Kohli pay?
Virat Kohli reportedly paid ₹66 crore in advance tax for FY 2023-24 and was the highest-ranked sportsperson in Fortune India’s celebrity list.
Q. Who is the highest tax-paying actress in India?
Kareena Kapoor Khan was the highest-ranked female celebrity in Fortune India’s FY 2023-24 list, with reported tax of ₹20 crore.
Q. Which company pays the highest tax in India?
There is no simple official FY 2025-26 company leaderboard using one standardized tax metric. Reliance Industries reported the largest national-exchequer contribution at ₹2,16,472 crore, but that figure includes more than corporate income tax. TCS separately reported ₹16,033 crore of consolidated income-tax expense for FY 2025-26.
Q. How much tax did Reliance Industries pay in 2026?
Reliance reported a ₹2,16,472 crore contribution to the national exchequer in FY 2025-26. This should not be described as ₹2,16,472 crore of corporate income tax. Its consolidated current-tax figure for FY 2025-26 was ₹9,736 crore.
Q. Is Mukesh Ambani India’s highest individual taxpayer?
There is no authoritative public ranking confirming Mukesh Ambani as India’s highest individual taxpayer. Reliance Industries’ corporate payments cannot be treated as his personal income tax.
Q. Is there an official top 10 taxpayer list from the Income Tax Department?
CBDT publishes aggregate tax statistics, but its public time-series data does not provide a named top-10 ranking of individual taxpayers.
Key Takeaways
- Amitabh Bachchan is the latest reported highest tax-paying celebrity, with ₹120 crore for FY 2024-25.
- Shah Rukh Khan previously topped Fortune India’s FY 2023-24 celebrity list with ₹92 crore in advance tax.
- Virat Kohli was the highest-ranked sportsperson in the FY 2023-24 celebrity list at ₹66 crore.
- There is no verified government leaderboard naming India’s highest individual taxpayer for FY 2025-26.
- Reliance Industries’ ₹2,16,472 crore FY 2025-26 figure is its contribution to the national exchequer, not simply corporate income tax.
- TCS reported ₹16,033 crore in consolidated income-tax expense for FY 2025-26.
- Infosys reported ₹10,521 crore in consolidated income-tax expense for FY 2025-26.
- Net worth, personal tax, corporate tax expense and contributions to the exchequer should never be treated as interchangeable figures.
- Articles claiming a definitive FY 2025-26 celebrity top-10 list should be checked carefully unless they identify a credible underlying source.
References
- Income Tax Department, CBDT link
- Amitabh Bachchan tax report, Business Standard link
- Celebrity taxpayer ranking, Fortune India link
- Celebrity tax list, Business Standard link
- TCS Annual Report 2025-26 link
Note: Last verified: August 2026
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