The system of record for how work actually happens.
Type an annual CTC. The studio breaks it into basic, HRA, special, and reimbursements; subtracts PF, ESI, professional tax, and TDS; and shows you the monthly take-home with every component on the sheet. Both the new regime and the old regime, side-by-side, with the better one highlighted.
Anatomy of a salary
A salary is never one number. It's a stack of components arranged so that some are taxable, some are exempt, some are statutory contributions, and some are reimbursements paid against bills. Knowing which is which is the whole point of the calculator — and the structure shows up identically on every payslip the studio generates.
Typically 40–50% of CTC
The structural foundation of the package. Every other component is sized as a multiple or percentage of basic — HRA caps off it, PF is calculated on it, gratuity accrues from it, bonuses anchor to it.
PF, gratuity, and bonus are computed off basic — keeping basic low understates these. The studio flags it when basic falls below 40%.
Capped at 50% of basic in metros
Pays for rented accommodation. The exempt portion is the minimum of: actual HRA received, rent paid minus 10% of basic, or 50% of basic (metro) / 40% (non-metro). The non-exempt portion is taxable.
Old regime only. Section 10(13A). Producing rent receipts above ₹1L/yr requires landlord PAN.
The flex remainder
Whatever's left of the CTC after the structured components are filled in. Fully taxable in both regimes, no exemption math. It's the line that absorbs the slack — and the line auditors look at when the rest of the structure looks gamed.
Mobile, fuel, internet, books, meal
Paid against submitted bills. Exempt within Income Tax limits — telephone reimbursement is fully exempt with bills, fuel is partially exempt, meal vouchers are exempt up to ₹50/meal. Different from allowances paid without bills.
Bills required at year-end. Unspent reimbursement converts to taxable salary.
12% of basic, both sides
Statutory retirement savings. 12% from the employee + 12% matched from the employer. Employer's 12% splits 8.33% to EPS (pension) and 3.67% to EPF. Both contributions go to EPFO and accumulate at the declared interest rate.
Employees can elect the ₹15,000 wage ceiling — caps employer contribution at ₹1,800/mo.
0.75% (employee) + 3.25% (employer)
Health insurance + medical care + maternity benefits. Applies only when monthly gross wage is ≤ ₹21,000 (₹25,000 for persons with disability). Above the threshold, ESI doesn't apply at all.
Cliff threshold — ₹20,999 employee in, ₹21,000 employee out. No phase-out.
State-levied, ₹0–₹2,500/yr
Levied by individual state governments. Slabs vary — Karnataka is ₹200/mo plus a ₹300 February quirk, Maharashtra is ₹200/mo for incomes ≥ ₹10k, Tamil Nadu charges semi-annually. A handful of states (Delhi, Haryana, UP) don't levy it at all.
Deductible under 80C from gross taxable income. The studio applies the right state automatically.
New vs old regime
The new regime ships with lower slabs but no exemptions; the old regime keeps higher slabs but lets you claim HRA, 80C, 80D, NPS, and home-loan interest. Which one wins is purely a function of how much exemption you can actually claim against the old regime — the calculator runs both and tells you the delta.
The default since FY 2024. Lower tax rates in exchange for giving up most exemptions.
₹75,000 flat (since FY 2024)
Not allowed
Only employer NPS contribution (Sec 80CCD(2))
Only on rented-out property, not self-occupied
Highest tier capped at 25%
Take-home leans high, rent receipts are weak, and 80C / 80D investments add up to less than ₹3L combined. Most under-₹15L salaries net more here.
Higher slabs, but every exemption from HRA to 80C to home-loan-interest is on the table.
₹50,000 flat
Section 10(13A) — up to 50% basic in metros
Full ₹1.5L (80C) + ₹25k (80D) + NPS / 80CCD(1B) ₹50k
Up to ₹2L on self-occupied (Sec 24)
Highest tier 37% above ₹5Cr income
Rent is high enough to bite, 80C is fully utilised, you're servicing a self-occupied home loan, or NPS contributions are routine. Above ₹15L with strong exemptions usually wins here.
The slab tables
The slabs are the most-asked thing about Indian income tax. The calculator uses these tables internally, but they're worth seeing in the open — both so you can sanity-check the result and so the surcharge tiers (10% / 15% / 25% / 37%) are visible at the income ranges they actually trigger at.
| Income slab | Tax rate |
|---|---|
| Up to ₹3,00,000 | Nil |
| ₹3,00,001 – ₹7,00,000 | 5% |
| ₹7,00,001 – ₹10,00,000 | 10% |
| ₹10,00,001 – ₹12,00,000 | 15% |
| ₹12,00,001 – ₹15,00,000 | 20% |
| Above ₹15,00,000 | 30% |
10% (₹50L–₹1Cr), 15% (₹1Cr–₹2Cr), 25% (above ₹2Cr). Capped at 25% — no 37% tier in the new regime.
4% on the tax + surcharge — applies regardless of regime.
| Income slab | Tax rate |
|---|---|
| Up to ₹2,50,000 | Nil |
| ₹2,50,001 – ₹5,00,000 | 5% |
| ₹5,00,001 – ₹10,00,000 | 20% |
| Above ₹10,00,000 | 30% |
10% (₹50L–₹1Cr), 15% (₹1Cr–₹2Cr), 25% (₹2Cr–₹5Cr), 37% above ₹5Cr.
4% on the tax + surcharge — applies regardless of regime.
Edge cases
A salary calculator that only handles the happy path is a calculator with footnotes. The edge cases below are where most online calculators quietly disagree with what shows up on the employee's actual stub — so the studio handles each one explicitly, with a one-line label on the result.
Each axis is one of the six wobble-points where most online calculators silently disagree with what an employer's payroll engine actually produces. The studio's coverage web touches every axis — the cards below explain how each one is handled.
A bonus paid as a one-time event in March doesn't fit the projected-annual-income model the monthly TDS engine assumes. Most calculators either smear it across 12 months or ignore it; both produce a wrong stub.
An employee joining in October only earns 6 months of salary against the year's slabs. A leaver in October only has 6 months of TDS to spread their slabs across. The calculator that assumes 12 months over-withholds on joiners and under-withholds on leavers.
Switching regimes mid-financial-year is allowed once per year for salaried employees, but the studio has to remember the prior-month deductions and adjust the rest of the year so the cumulative tax lands on the correct annual figure under the new regime.
Most employees default to 12% on full basic; some employers cap at the ₹15,000 wage ceiling, reducing employer EPF contribution to ₹1,800/month. Forgetting the cap election produces a take-home that looks ₹6–8k higher than the employee actually sees.
The HRA exemption is the minimum of: actual HRA received, rent paid minus 10% of basic, or 50% / 40% of basic. Which constraint binds determines the exemption — and most online calculators just take the lowest without showing the working.
Employer contribution to NPS (up to 10% of basic + DA) is fully exempt under Section 80CCD(2) — and it's the one major deduction still available in the new regime. Calculators that hard-code zero exemption in the new regime miss this.
The math worked
Below is what the calculator shows when you type ₹15,00,000 into the CTC field. Every component of the structure, every deduction, every regime difference — laid out so the take-home isn't a black box. The same view appears on every employee's payslip in batch payroll runs, so the math an employee sees here is the math they see on month-end too.
| Line | Annual (₹) | Monthly (₹) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
CTC | 15,00,000 | 1,25,000 | The contract figure |
Basic (50%) | 7,50,000 | 62,500 | Foundation; drives PF, gratuity, bonus |
HRA (44% of basic, metro) | 3,30,000 | 27,500 | Exempt under 10(13A) if old regime + rent |
Special allowance | 3,00,000 | 25,000 | Fully taxable, absorbs the remainder |
Reimbursements | 1,20,000 | 10,000 | Mobile + fuel + internet, against bills |
EPF (12% of basic) | 90,000 | 7,500 | Employee share; employer matches off-CTC |
Professional tax | 2,400 | 200 | Karnataka; states vary |
TDS (new regime) | 18,000 | 1,500 | After ₹75,000 standard deduction |
Monthly take-home | 13,89,600 | 1,15,800 | 92.6% of CTC — both regimes within ₹3k here |
Example assumes metro HRA, default elections, no 80C / 80D, FY 2025-26 slabs.
The Q&A column
What stays private. How accurate the slabs are. Whether you can lock a regime. What happens at year-end. The narrow, calculator-specific version — the broader payroll questions live on the parent landing's FAQ.
Nowhere. Every input — the CTC, the regime, the metro election, the wage-cap toggle — lives in browser memory only. Closing the tab clears it. Reloading the page clears it. There's no analytics pixel reading the numbers either; the calculator is a pure client-side computation, no salary value ever leaves the device.
Continue with
The calculator answers the take-home question; the next tracks turn the same numbers into a stub, structure a package backwards, or zoom in on TDS / PF / ESI individually. Same studio, same engine — the result you saw above flows into all four.
The full ten-tool studio is open and free to use. Slabs are current to Budget 2025 (FY 2025-26 / AY 2026-27); 87A rebate, surcharge, and 4 % cess are applied in line with the chosen regime.