ITR Filing 2025: Social Media Influencers and F&O Traders Now Have Their Own Tax Codes

For ITR filing 2025, the Income Tax Department has added five new profession codes in the ITR-3 form. This move is aimed at better monitoring of income earned by professionals in emerging digital fields like social media influencing, trading, and live event management.

What’s New in Form ITR-3?

The ITR-3 form now includes specific codes for:

• Social Media Influencers
• Futures & Options (F&O) Traders
• Speculative Traders (including betting-related income)
• Commission Agents
• Live Event Professionals

Until now, many of these professionals used incorrect or general codes while filing returns. With this update, the I-T Department hopes to reduce misreporting and ensure proper tax collection.

ITR Filing 2025: Why Was This Change Needed?

Over the past few years, professions like content creation and online trading have exploded. For example, many influencers earn over ₹20 lakh annually, with some making ₹2–5 crore or even more. But due to lack of specific ITR codes, many either avoided filing returns or used the wrong categories.

This led to data mismatches, possible tax evasion, and revenue loss for the government. The new profession codes will make it easier to track such income and ensure better compliance.

Benefits for Taxpayers

Here’s how this update helps professionals:

• More clarity during return filing, reducing errors.
• Better legal compliance by using the right profession code.
• Faster processing of ITRs and less scrutiny from tax officers.
• Increased awareness for digital professionals to manage taxes properly.

How Will the Income-Tax Department Benefit?

The new codes also help the I-T Department use data analytics more effectively. Tax officers can now easily identify what profession a taxpayer belongs to, making it harder to hide income or misreport earnings.

Read more: ITR Filing 2025: Here’s Why You Must Declare F&O Losses.

Conclusion

This update shows the government’s effort to keep pace with India’s changing job landscape, especially in the digital and gig economy. With proper categorisation, both taxpayers and the tax department benefit.

If you’re a social media influencer, F&O trader, commission agent, or in live events, make sure you select the correct profession code when filing your ITR this year.

Disclaimer: This blog has been written exclusively for educational purposes. The securities mentioned are only examples and not recommendations. This does not constitute a personal recommendation/investment advice. It does not aim to influence any individual or entity to make investment decisions. Recipients should conduct their own research and assessments to form an independent opinion about investment decisions.