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How to use the income tax calculator (india)
- 1Enter your gross annual income, and whether it is salaried — salaried income gets the standard deduction automatically.
- 2Fill in your old-regime deductions: 80C, 80D, HRA exemption, home-loan interest, NPS. The new regime ignores these, and the tool caps each at its statutory limit.
- 3Read the verdict — which regime is cheaper at your numbers, and by how much.
- 4Open “Full breakdown” on either card to see the slab-by-slab arithmetic, rebate, surcharge and cess.
The new regime, and why ₹12 lakh is the number everyone quotes
Under the new regime for FY 2025-26, tax starts at nil up to ₹4 lakh and climbs in seven steps to 30% above ₹24 lakh. The headline, though, is the §87A rebate: if your taxable income is ₹12 lakh or less, the rebate cancels the entire slab tax, and you pay nothing. For a salaried person the ₹75,000 standard deduction stretches that to ₹12.75 lakh of gross salary — genuinely zero tax, not zero-after-refund.
Just above the threshold, marginal relief stops the cliff from being absurd. Without it, earning ₹12,01,000 would cost more in tax than the extra thousand earned; with it, your tax is capped at exactly the amount by which taxable income exceeds ₹12 lakh. The calculator applies this automatically and shows the relief as its own line, because seeing it is the only way the number makes sense.
What the new regime takes away is deductions: no 80C, no HRA exemption, no home-loan interest on a self-occupied house. The standard deduction and the employer's NPS contribution under 80CCD(2) are the notable survivors. That trade — lower slabs for no paperwork — is the entire choice between the regimes.
The old regime: higher slabs, but everything is deductible
The old regime keeps the familiar structure — nil to ₹2.5 lakh, 5% to ₹5 lakh, 20% to ₹10 lakh, 30% beyond — with a higher exemption limit for senior citizens (₹3 lakh at 60, ₹5 lakh at 80), and a smaller §87A rebate that zeroes tax up to ₹5 lakh of taxable income. On slabs alone it loses to the new regime at every income level.
Its case rests entirely on deductions: ₹1.5 lakh under 80C, health-insurance premiums under 80D, the HRA exemption, up to ₹2 lakh of home-loan interest, another ₹50,000 of NPS under 80CCD(1B), and the long tail of 80G, 80E and the rest. Enter what you actually claim and the calculator enforces each statutory cap, so an optimistic ₹3 lakh in the 80C box is counted at the ₹1.5 lakh the law allows.
One input deserves care: the HRA field asks for the exempt amount, not your rent. The exemption is the least of the HRA received, rent paid minus 10% of basic salary, and half of basic (40% outside the metros) — your payslip provider or payroll team computes it, and the Rent Receipt Generator linked below produces the receipts that support it.
Which regime wins? Almost always the new one — check anyway
The honest headline from running the numbers: after the FY 2025-26 slab changes, the new regime wins for most salaried taxpayers, including many who assume their 80C and HRA make the old regime worthwhile. At ₹20 lakh of salary, even ₹6 lakh of combined deductions still leaves the old regime behind. The breakeven sits far higher than the folk wisdom from earlier years suggests.
The old regime still wins in one recognisable situation: large legitimate deductions stacked together — a metro HRA exemption in lakhs, maxed 80C, a home loan at its ₹2 lakh cap, NPS on top. Households like that exist in numbers, and for them the difference runs to real money; the verdict line prices it exactly.
Salaried taxpayers can pick the regime fresh each year at filing time (the new regime is the default; the old one is an opt-in), so the practical advice is simply to re-run this comparison every year with that year's numbers. Business income is stickier — the old regime, once left, can effectively be returned to only once — which is worth a conversation with a professional before switching.
Surcharge, cess, and what this calculator deliberately leaves out
Above ₹50 lakh of taxable income a surcharge applies — 10%, rising to 15% past ₹1 crore and 25% past ₹2 crore, with the old regime's 37% top band capped at 25% under the new one. Each threshold carries its own marginal relief so that a rupee of extra income can never cost more than a rupee in surcharge; the calculator implements the relief rather than the naive percentage. On top of everything sits the 4% health and education cess.
Deliberately out of scope: income taxed at special rates. Capital gains on shares and property, lottery winnings and similar items follow their own schedules and do not mix into the slab arithmetic here. If a chunk of your income is capital gains, compute it separately and treat this result as the tax on the rest.
The slabs, rebate and thresholds here are as enacted for FY 2025-26 (assessment year 2026-27) — the return most people are filing now — and the page says so rather than pretending to be timeless. Budgets change these numbers; before acting on a figure, confirm the current year's law or ask a chartered accountant. The calculator runs entirely in your browser, so your income and deductions are never uploaded anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
Is income up to ₹12 lakh really tax-free?
Under the new regime for FY 2025-26, yes — taxable income up to ₹12 lakh attracts a §87A rebate that cancels the slab tax entirely, and the ₹75,000 standard deduction lifts the effective threshold to ₹12.75 lakh of gross salary. It is a rebate, not an exemption: cross the line and tax applies from ₹4 lakh upward, softened by marginal relief just above the threshold.
Which regime is the default?
The new regime. If you do nothing, your employer deducts TDS under it and your return is processed under it. Choosing the old regime is an active opt-in at filing — worth doing only when this comparison shows it saving you money.
Can I switch regimes every year?
Salaried taxpayers can choose afresh each year when filing. Taxpayers with business or professional income face a stickier rule — broadly, opting out of the new regime can be reversed only once — so a switch deserves professional advice.
Do any deductions survive under the new regime?
The important survivors are the ₹75,000 standard deduction on salary and the employer's NPS contribution under 80CCD(2). The familiar personal deductions — 80C, 80D, HRA, home-loan interest on a self-occupied house — do not apply under the new regime.
Why does my employer's TDS differ from this number?
TDS is your estimated annual tax spread across pay periods, adjusted whenever your declared investments or the year's actual pay change. Bonuses, mid-year hikes and proof-submission season all move it. The year-end truth is the return; this calculator shows that year-end arithmetic.
Does this cover capital gains?
No — gains on shares, mutual funds and property are taxed at their own special rates outside the slab system, and mixing them in would produce confidently wrong numbers. Compute them separately; use this tool for salary and other slab-rate income.
Is my financial data sent anywhere?
No. The entire computation is a few kilobytes of arithmetic running in your browser tab. Income, deductions and results are never transmitted, logged or stored.