Free Salary / CTC Calculator for India
Calculate in-hand salary from CTC with PF, ESI, professional tax, and TDS — old or new regime, state-aware.
How to convert CTC to in-hand salary
Enter your annual CTC
CTC is the total cost to the company — what the employer pays for hiring you per year. It includes your gross salary, employer PF, gratuity, and any other employer-funded benefit.
Pick the tax regime
Old regime has higher tax slabs but allows deductions under 80C, 80D, HRA, etc. New regime has lower slabs and a ₹75,000 standard deduction but disallows most exemptions. New is more efficient for most salaried employees up to ~₹15L CTC.
Select age and state
Age determines the basic exemption under the old regime (₹2.5L below 60, ₹3L for senior citizens, ₹5L for super seniors). State determines professional tax — Maharashtra deducts ₹2,500/year, Karnataka ₹2,400, Gujarat ₹200/month above ₹12.5k gross.
Read in-hand monthly and annual
The result shows your monthly take-home + the full annual breakdown: basic, HRA, special allowance, PF, ESI, professional tax, and income-tax TDS. Copy or save the breakdown.
What this salary calculator does
"What's your CTC?" is the first question in any salary negotiation, but CTC is a number designed to look good on an offer letter, not a number you can spend. The real number is your monthly in-hand — what hits your bank account after PF, ESI, professional tax, and income tax. This calculator converts the public-facing CTC into the private-facing in-hand in seconds.
You can also compare old-regime vs new-regime tax to decide which to opt for at the start of the year, and see how state-specific professional tax affects your take-home.
CTC vs. Gross vs. Net — three different numbers
Three different concepts that often get confused:
- CTC (Cost to Company): the total amount the employer spends on you per year. Includes gross salary + employer PF (12% of basic) + gratuity provision (~4.81% of basic) + group health/life insurance premium. This is the number on your offer letter.
- Gross salary: CTC minus employer-funded retirement/insurance contributions. Roughly CTC − ₹21,600 (employer PF capped) for most mid-level salaries. This is what your payslip shows as "Gross".
- Net (in-hand) salary: Gross minus employee PF, ESI (if applicable), professional tax, and income-tax TDS. This is what hits your bank account every month.
The gap between CTC and in-hand for a ₹15L CTC employee in Maharashtra is typically ₹1.5L–2.5L per year, depending on regime and investments.
Old vs New tax regime — how to choose
From FY 2023-24, the new regime is the default. You can opt out and choose the old regime once per FY (or once per lifetime for non-salaried income). Both regimes share these features:
- Both apply to total income from salary, business, capital gains, other sources.
- Both allow standard deduction (₹50,000 old; ₹75,000 new from FY 2024-25).
- Both have 4% health & education cess on tax payable.
- Both have Section 87A rebate (₹12,500 old if taxable ≤ ₹5L; ₹25,000 new if taxable ≤ ₹7L).
Old regime slabs (FY 2025-26)
- Up to basic exemption (₹2.5L / ₹3L / ₹5L by age): 0%
- Up to ₹5L: 5%
- Up to ₹10L: 20%
- Above ₹10L: 30%
Allows: HRA exemption, 80C up to ₹1.5L (PF, ELSS, life insurance, home-loan principal), 80D health insurance, home-loan interest under Section 24, LTA, NPS additional ₹50k under 80CCD(1B), and many others.
New regime slabs (FY 2025-26)
- Up to ₹3L: 0%
- ₹3L–6L: 5%
- ₹6L–9L: 10%
- ₹9L–12L: 15%
- ₹12L–15L: 20%
- Above ₹15L: 30%
Disallows: HRA, 80C (except employer NPS), 80D, home-loan interest on self-occupied, LTA, and most other exemptions. Allowed: standard deduction, employer NPS contribution under 80CCD(2), and a few others.
Which one wins?
Rule of thumb for FY 2025-26:
- Salary up to ~₹7L: new regime → zero tax due to 87A.
- Salary ₹7L–15L without big deductions: new regime wins by ₹10k–30k.
- Salary ₹7L–15L WITH big deductions (₹1.5L 80C + ₹50k 80D + ₹2L HRA + ₹2L home-loan interest): old regime can win by ₹20k–60k.
- Salary > ₹15L: model both — depends entirely on your deductions stack.
Switch regimes by submitting Form 10-IEA to your employer before salary processing for April. Switching mid-year is not allowed.
Provident Fund deep-dive
EPF is a forced savings scheme — both employee and employer contribute 12% of basic salary. As of 2026:
- Employee's 12% contribution → entirely to EPF (PF account).
- Employer's 12% split: 8.33% to EPS (pension fund, capped at ₹1,250/mo) + the rest to EPF.
- Statutory wage ceiling: ₹15,000/month of basic. Employers can choose to contribute 12% only up to this ceiling (₹1,800/mo) or 12% on the actual basic (uncapped). The first is more common in India today.
- Interest: declared annually by EPFO, currently 8.25% p.a. (FY 2024-25). Tax-free on withdrawal after 5 years of continuous service.
VPF (Voluntary Provident Fund)
An employee can voluntarily contribute up to 100% of basic + DA to VPF, with the employer's portion unchanged. VPF earns the same EPF interest rate (currently 8.25%) and shares the same tax-free withdrawal rule. Better than most fixed-income alternatives if you want tax-free debt returns.
PF on resignation
If you switch jobs and the new employer has EPF, transfer the PF balance — do not withdraw. Transferring preserves the 5-year continuity rule and protects the tax-free status. Withdrawals before 5 years are taxed and can trigger TDS.
Strategies to maximize in-hand
Two levers — choose the right regime, and structure your CTC components correctly:
- Negotiate higher basic if you're on old regime, lower basic on new. Higher basic = higher HRA exemption but also higher PF deduction. On old regime with rent payment, higher basic usually wins. On new regime, higher basic just means more PF deduction (no offsetting exemption), so lower basic is better.
- Ask for tax-efficient allowances under old regime: meal cards (Sodexo) tax-free up to ₹50/meal, mobile reimbursement, car lease perquisite, books/periodicals reimbursement, gift vouchers up to ₹5,000/year.
- Use the NPS Tier-I 80CCD(1B) deduction: additional ₹50,000 deduction over and above the ₹1.5L 80C limit. Only available in the old regime.
- Use the employer NPS contribution under 80CCD(2): deduction allowed in BOTH old and new regime. Ask your HR for up to 10% of basic as employer NPS contribution — fully deductible and goes to your retirement.
- Submit investment proofs by January: declaring 80C/80D/HRA/etc. in April and not actually investing means your employer recalculates and deducts a large lump sum in March. Avoid the cash-flow shock.
For employers and payroll teams
If you are running an HR team, this calculator is a fast back-of-the-envelope check before drafting offer letters or salary revisions. It is not a replacement for proper payroll software for the production payroll run, which must handle:
- Per-employee tax declarations (Form 12BB submissions)
- Mid-year joinees / leavers with proportional tax computation
- Variable components: incentives, bonuses, leave encashment
- Statutory limits per employee per FY (gratuity, leave encashment)
- TDS challan generation and Form 24Q quarterly filing
- Form 16 generation at year-end
ReadyBooks Payroll handles all of the above — set up an employee with CTC + state + regime + investments, the system computes net salary every month, deducts TDS, generates payslips, and files Form 24Q at quarter-end. Free for up to 5 employees on the Free plan.
From calculator to payslip
ReadyBooks Payroll lets you set up employees with their CTC + state + regime and runs the full payroll automatically — payslips, statutory deductions, TDS calculation, and Form 24Q filing. Free forever. Save to ReadyBooks above to start — your CTC entry becomes the default for the first employee setup.