Name: CTC to In-Hand Salary Calculator — Online Tool
Availability: InStock
Author: Bulan Sarkar

Part of the system: HRA exemption in 5 steps, Old vs new regime in 3 steps. Steps, checks and a free printable page.

Loading CTC to In-Hand Salary Calculator…

The calculator runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Rules last checked on 30 September 2026: the definition of wages and the 50% rule from the Ministry of Labour and Employment FAQs on the labour codes (30 December 2025 and 16 March 2026); the EPF wage ceiling of ₹25,000 from Notification S.O. 5109(E) of 17 September 2026 (Cabinet decision announced by PIB on 16 September 2026); income-tax slabs, the section 156 rebate and the section 19 standard deduction for tax year 2026-27 from the CBDT tax-rate tables on incometaxindia.gov.in (updated 28 September 2026). Professional tax slabs are the published state rates; check your payslip for your state. The tax figures were cross-checked against the Income Tax Department's own calculator.

Short answer

In-hand pay is your CTC minus the parts you never receive as salary (employer PF, gratuity, employer ESI) and minus what is deducted from your salary (your PF, professional tax and income tax). Since 21 November 2025 PF and gratuity are worked out on wages, which must be at least half of your pay, and since 17 September 2026 the PF ceiling is ₹25,000 a month. On a ₹12 lakh CTC with basic at 40%, that works out to about ₹91,400 a month, roughly ₹2,800 less than under the old rules, while your PF savings go up by ₹28,800 a year.

The 50% wage rule, with your numbers

The four labour codes came into force on 21 November 2025 and brought one definition of wages for PF, gratuity, ESI and bonus. Wages are your basic pay, dearness allowance and retaining allowance. Everything else you are paid, such as HRA, special allowance, conveyance and the employer's PF contribution, may add up to at most half of your total remuneration. If it comes to more, the excess is added back to wages for every statutory calculation.

The Ministry's FAQ of 16 March 2026 settles what counts in total remuneration for this test: the employer's PF and pension contributions and statutory bonus are included, while gratuity, ESI and other retirement benefits are not. Performance incentives and ESOPs are not wages at all. The calculator follows that reading, so a CTC with basic at 40% usually ends up with wages close to 49% of the CTC.

Your employer does not have to raise the basic on your payslip. Many have, but the law only needs PF and gratuity to be computed on the higher figure. Either way the effect on your pocket is the same, which is why the calculator shows the wage figure separately from basic.

PF: the ₹25,000 ceiling from 17 September 2026

You and your employer each pay 12% of wages into EPF. Most employers pay only on wages up to the statutory ceiling, which was ₹15,000 a month from September 2014 and became ₹25,000 a month on 17 September 2026. At the ceiling that is ₹3,000 each instead of ₹1,800. Out of the employer's 12%, 8.33% of wages up to the ceiling goes to the pension scheme (EPS), which is now up to ₹2,083 a month, and the rest to your PF account.

Some employers contribute on full wages with no ceiling. Pick that option if your payslip shows PF well above ₹3,000. Because employer PF sits inside your CTC, a bigger PF contribution lowers your gross pay by the same amount, and your own share is deducted on top. That is where most of the drop in take-home comes from.

Gratuity, ESI and professional tax

Gratuity is 15 days' wages for each year of service, where a month counts as 26 working days (the gratuity calculator works out the payout from your dates). Spread over a year that is 15 ÷ 26 ÷ 12 = 4.81% of monthly wages. Employers who show gratuity inside the CTC set this much aside, so it is not paid out each month. Under the codes it is worked out on the higher wage figure, and fixed-term employees qualify after one year instead of five.

ESI applies when gross pay is up to ₹21,000 a month: 0.75% from you and 3.25% from your employer. Professional tax is a state tax capped at ₹2,500 a year. The calculator carries the slabs for Maharashtra (with the higher exemption for women), Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu (Chennai rates), Telangana and Gujarat, a no-tax option for states such as Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and a box to type your own amount.

Income tax in both regimes

Tax year 2026-27 is the first under the Income-tax Act, 2025. The new regime in section 202 is the default: nil up to ₹4 lakh, then 5% up to ₹8 lakh, 10% up to ₹12 lakh, 15% up to ₹16 lakh, 20% up to ₹20 lakh, 25% up to ₹24 lakh and 30% above. The standard deduction under section 19 is ₹75,000, and the section 156 rebate (the old 87A) wipes out tax up to ₹12 lakh of taxable income, with marginal relief just above it. That is why salary up to ₹12.75 lakh pays no tax.

The old regime keeps the ₹50,000 standard deduction, professional tax, HRA exemption, section 123 (old 80C, up to ₹1,50,000, which includes your own PF) and section 126 (old 80D). Open the old-regime box to add rent and investments. The calculator shows both and uses the cheaper one for the headline figure. It covers salary income for someone under 60; for other income or a detailed regime comparison use the income tax calculator.

Worked examples

₹12 lakh CTC in Bengaluru, basic at 40%

Monthly CTC is ₹1,00,000 and basic is ₹40,000. Gratuity at 4.81% of wages is left out of remuneration, which comes to ₹97,653. Everything other than basic is ₹57,653, or 59%, above the 50% line, so ₹8,826 is added back and wages become ₹48,826.

PF is 12% of ₹25,000 = ₹3,000 from each side and gratuity is ₹2,347, which leaves a gross salary of ₹94,653. Taxable income under the new regime is ₹10,60,831, so the rebate brings tax to nil. After your PF and Karnataka professional tax of ₹2,500 a year, in-hand pay is ₹91,444 a month.

Under the old rules (PF on basic, ₹15,000 ceiling) in-hand would have been ₹94,269, so take-home falls by ₹2,824 a month. PF going into your account rises from ₹43,200 to ₹72,000 a year.

₹20 lakh CTC in Mumbai, basic already at 50%

Basic is ₹83,333 a month and HRA is half of it. Basic is already more than half of the ₹1,62,660 remuneration, so nothing is added back. The only change is the PF ceiling: ₹3,000 instead of ₹1,800 from each side, which lowers gross pay to ₹1,59,660.

New regime: taxable income ₹18,40,923 and tax ₹1,74,910, so in-hand is ₹1,41,876 a month, ₹2,150 less than before 17 September. Old regime, with ₹30,000 rent in Mumbai (HRA exemption ₹2,60,000), ₹50,000 of other section 123 investments and ₹25,000 under section 126: taxable income ₹14,92,423 and tax ₹2,70,640, giving ₹1,33,899 a month. The new regime is better by about ₹95,700 a year.

Written by Bulan Sarkar, who checked the results by hand and against a second public calculator. Use it for planning; it isn't tax or investment advice.

Sources

Income Tax Calculator

Tax for 2026-27 under both regimes, slab by slab, with the ₹12 lakh rebate and its marginal relief, employer NPS, surcharge, cess, monthly TDS and your marginal rate.