India CTC to Take-home Calculator

About ₹91,200 a month — 91% of CTC — with Basic at 50%, a metro posting, Maharashtra as the work state, the new regime and EPF on the ₹25,000 wage ceiling in force from 17 September 2026. At this level the s.156 (formerly s.87A) rebate wipes out income tax entirely, so the only deductions are ₹3,000 of employee EPF and ₹208 of professional tax. Switch EPF to full Basic on the same CTC and the employer's own costs — EPF, EDLI, admin charges and the gratuity provision — rise from about ₹67,000 to ₹1,03,000 a year, shrinking gross and bringing take-home down to roughly ₹85,000. At this salary level the EPF wage base, not tax, decides the take-home.

Switch 'Direction' at the top of the calculator to 'From a target' and enter ₹15,000 as monthly gross: the answer is roughly ₹2,01,000 of annual CTC (Maharashtra, Basic at 50%, new regime). The gap between gross and CTC is what the employer pays on top — EPF, EDLI and the gratuity provision — and at this level ESIC also applies (ESI wages of about ₹8,000, well within ₹21,000), adding 3.25% of those wages on the employer side. Switch the target to monthly take-home and it solves for the figure that actually reaches the bank account, after employee EPF, ESIC and professional tax. The answer moves with the work state, the regime and the Basic split: the same take-home costs less in Delhi, which levies no professional tax.

Yes, within narrow bands. Just past ₹12L of taxable income the s.156 (formerly s.87A) rebate falls away and marginal relief takes over, so tax absorbs almost all of the additional income. Employer-side costs such as the gratuity provision keep rising with CTC regardless, and the net effect is a fall. On the default structure, monthly take-home is ₹1,03,025 at ₹13,50,000 of CTC but ₹1,02,814 at ₹14,15,000 — ₹211 lower — and only recovers at about ₹14,22,000. An offer inside that band costs the employer more without reaching the employee. The reverse mode flags this when the answer lands there. The same effect occurs at the surcharge thresholds of ₹50L, ₹1Cr, ₹2Cr and ₹5Cr.

The Code on Wages, in force from 21 November 2025, defines wages as Basic plus DA plus retaining allowance and requires that to be at least half of total remuneration. The Labour Ministry's Additional FAQs (16 March 2026, Q1) count the employer's PF and pension contributions in that total, so in practice Basic has to be a little above 50% of gross. Fall short and the gap is treated as wages, forcing EPF and gratuity to be recomputed with arrears, interest and penalty exposure. Drop the slider below 50% in the calculator and the warning shows the size of the shortfall.

On the ceiling, each side contributes ₹3,000 a month. On a PF wage of ₹50,000 — Basic + DA, or half of total pay including the employer PF if that is more — each side contributes ₹6,000 instead. The employee's corpus and the employer's cost both rise and monthly take-home falls. It is normally a company-wide policy rather than a per-employee election, and moving from the ceiling to the full wage is far easier than reversing it later.

Salaried taxpayers elect a regime each financial year, which begins on 1 April. With no declaration the new regime applies by default. Withholding follows the declared regime, but the final position is settled in the return filed by July, so a different regime can still be claimed there. Taxpayers with business income face restrictions on switching back.

The old regime and rent actually paid. The exemption is the least of HRA received, annual rent minus 10% of Basic + DA, and 50% (metro) or 40% (non-metro) of Basic + DA. The employer needs the rent agreement and receipts, plus the landlord's PAN once annual rent exceeds ₹1L. Living in your own home or paying no rent makes the whole HRA taxable.

It applies while monthly ESI wages are ₹21,000 or less (₹25,000 for a person with disability). For wage months up to October 2025 those were gross pay under the ESI Act, 1948. From the November 2025 wage month they are wages under the Code on Social Security, 2020: Basic + DA + retaining allowance, plus however much the rest of the pay exceeds half of total remuneration — which, under the Additional FAQs of 16 March 2026 (Q1), includes the employer's PF and EPS. The Labour Ministry's FAQs (16 March 2026) confirm that definition and the continuing ₹21,000; as of October 2026 no new ceiling has been notified under the Code. Following the Ministry's FAQ, special allowance counts only through that half-of-pay test — read literally, the Code would count it as wages in full, which would narrow coverage. Coverage runs by contribution period (April–September, October–March): an employee covered when a period began stays covered to its end even if a raise takes wages over the ceiling. The ESI Act had this rule; under the Code it was restored by S.O. 2351(E) of 8 May 2026. This calculator decides coverage for a single month and does not track contribution periods. Practice on the wage basis is not yet uniform, so confirm with your ESIC branch office, and if it applies a different test, set ESIC coverage in the detailed inputs (Statutory options).

Because it is a state levy under Article 276 of the Constitution rather than a central tax. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat charge it; Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand do not. Slabs and payment frequency — monthly, half-yearly or annual — also differ. Article 276 caps the annual amount at ₹2,500, so the sums are small, but each state of operation needs its own registration.

Nothing prohibits it, and most Indian employers do. But an employee leaving before five years receives none of it, so including it silently causes disputes. State in the offer that CTC includes an annual gratuity provision payable on completing five years. Switch to Detailed mode and toggle it under “Statutory options” to see the effect on take-home.

Yes. Indian EPF treats foreign nationals as International Workers, and the ₹25,000 wage ceiling does not apply to them — contributions are on full salary. Where a social security agreement exists between India and the home country, a certificate of coverage from the home scheme can exempt the assignee. Confirm this before the assignment starts; this calculator models a domestic employee, so expatriate packages need separate review.

Section 124 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (formerly s.80CCD(2)) covers employer contributions to the employee's NPS account and is the one Chapter VIII (formerly Chapter VI-A) deduction the new regime under s.202 (formerly s.115BAC) did not withdraw. The cap is 14% of Basic + DA under the new regime and 10% under the old one. Routing part of a raise into employer NPS lowers taxable income and raises after-tax value — though NPS withdrawals are heavily restricted before age 60, which the employee should understand first.

Not exactly. This calculator assumes CTC is split mechanically by the Basic percentage. Real employers add meal vouchers, telephone and vehicle reimbursements, variable pay, perquisites valued under Rule 15 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 (formerly Rule 3), and loss-of-pay adjustments, and withholding shifts month to month with the employee's Form 124 (formerly Form 12BB) declaration. Treat the result as a planning estimate and have an Indian chartered accountant review the structure before payroll runs.