Take-Home Salary Calculator

How to use this calculator

1. Enter the annual CTC from the offer letter.
2. Enter basic as a percentage of CTC — check the offer breakup, it is usually 40 to 50%.
3. Choose the tax regime, and enter deductions if using the old one.

Where the money goes

CTC means cost to company. It includes everything the employer spends on you, including two large items that never reach your account:

Employer PF contribution — 12% of basic. It goes into your EPF account, so it is genuinely yours, but you cannot spend it now.

Gratuity provision — about 4.81% of basic, set aside against gratuity the employer will owe you if you complete five years. Leave at four years and eleven months and this was counted in your package and paid to you as nothing.

What remains is your gross salary — the figure on your payslip. From that comes your own PF (another 12% of basic), professional tax, and income tax.

A worked example

A ₹12,00,000 CTC offer, basic at 40%, under the new regime.

Basic is ₹4,80,000.

CTC                                      12,00,000
− employer PF        (12% of basic)         −57,600
− gratuity provision (4.81% of basic)       −23,088
                              gross      11,19,312

− your PF            (12% of basic)         −57,600
− professional tax                           −2,400
− income tax                                     −0
                       annual in-hand    10,59,312

Monthly in-hand	₹88,276
Monthly gross	₹93,276
Share of CTC received	88.3%

Income tax is zero here: gross minus professional tax minus the ₹75,000 standard deduction lands under ₹12,00,000, so the section 87A rebate wipes it out entirely.

A ₹12 lakh offer pays about ₹88,000 a month, not ₹1,00,000. That gap is what surprises people, and it widens sharply as salaries rise and tax kicks in.

Why the basic percentage matters so much

Almost everything scales off basic:

• PF is 12% of basic on both sides
• The gratuity provision is 4.81% of basic
• HRA exemption limits are a percentage of basic

A higher basic means more retirement savings, a larger HRA claim, and a larger eventual gratuity — but less cash now. A lower basic means more cash now and less of everything else.

On the same ₹12 lakh CTC, moving basic from 30% to 50% reduces monthly in-hand by about ₹5,762 while adding ₹57,600 a year to your EPF across both contributions. Neither is wrong; they suit different situations. This is the single biggest structural variable in an offer, and it is often negotiable.

What this estimate leaves out

Real packages differ in ways no calculator can guess:

• Special allowance, the balancing figure most employers use, is fully taxable
• LTA, meal cards and fuel reimbursement have their own exemption rules
• Variable pay and joining bonuses are usually in the CTC but paid conditionally, often annually rather than monthly
• Insurance premiums paid by the employer sit in CTC and reach you as cover, not cash
• Professional tax varies by state — ₹2,400 a year is typical, capped at ₹2,500 by the Constitution, and a few states levy none
• NPS employer contribution under 80CCD(2) is deductible even in the new regime, which this calculator does not model

Use this to compare offers on a consistent basis and to sanity-check a recruiter number. It is not a payslip.

Old regime or new?

The new regime wins for most salaried people, because the lower slab rates beat the deductions surrendered. The old regime pulls ahead when you genuinely claim a lot — typically over ₹3.5 to ₹4 lakh, which in practice means a large HRA exemption plus home loan interest plus a full ₹1.5 lakh under 80C.

Toggle the regime here and compare the in-hand figure directly. That is a more useful comparison than the tax number on its own.

Questions worth asking before you accept

What is the basic as a percentage of CTC? It determines PF, gratuity and your HRA claim.

How much of the CTC is variable? A ₹15 lakh package with ₹3 lakh of performance-linked pay is a ₹12 lakh package with an upside.

Is the employer PF contribution capped at the statutory minimum? Some employers cap it at 12% of ₹15,000 rather than of actual basic, which raises in-hand pay and reduces retirement savings.

Is gratuity shown in the CTC? If so, you are funding it — and you only receive it after five years.

When this calculator is not the right tool

For the tax alone, with the slab working shown, use the income tax calculator. For the HRA exemption specifically, use the HRA calculator and feed the taxable figure back here. And for what a resignation before five years costs you in gratuity, the gratuity calculator makes that explicit.