Creating a Year shortcode

I am trying to create a shortcode called ‘year’ that I can place within pages as I have documents which should always refer to the current year. I have used the following in my functions.php:

function year_shortcode() {
	$year = the_time('Y');
	return $year;
}

add_shortcode('year', 'year_shortcode');

This brings the current year into the page but it sits at the top of the div rather than inline with the text. I’m wondering if the_time is being echoed despite the fact I used return? Can I use &echo=0 somewhere?