Overview
Salaried employees in India navigate one of the more complex income tax systems globally — two parallel tax regimes, dozens of deduction categories, employer-deducted TDS, and annual regime choices that can swing your tax liability by ₹50,000 or more. Getting this right does not require a chartered accountant for every calculation — it requires the right tools.
These six free tax calculators cover the complete toolkit for a salaried employee in India: computing your liability, planning deductions, calculating exemptions, and comparing regimes. All are updated for FY 2026-27 tax slabs, require no registration, and produce shareable results instantly.
What to Look For
Updated for FY 2026-27 slabs. Tax slabs, the standard deduction amount, surcharge thresholds, and the Section 87A rebate limit change from year to year. A calculator using last year's slabs can be off by ₹10,000–₹30,000 depending on your income bracket. Always verify the calculator explicitly states its applicable financial year.
Both old and new tax regime support. Since FY 2020-21, India has operated dual tax regimes. A tax calculator that only computes one regime is incomplete — the whole point of having two regimes is choosing the cheaper one, which requires running both.
Handles all salary components. Basic, DA, HRA, LTA, special allowance, bonus, reimbursements — a useful salary tax calculator handles the full payslip, not just a single gross income field. This matters because HRA exemption, LTA, and reimbursements change the effective taxable income substantially.
Shareable results. When you work through a tax scenario with your employer's HR or a financial adviser, the ability to share a URL encoding your exact inputs saves significant back-and-forth.
Our Picks
Income Tax Calculator
The Income Tax Calculator is the anchor of any tax planning exercise. Enter your gross income, regime choice, and all deductions — it computes your tax liability including basic tax, surcharge (for incomes above ₹50 lakh), health and education cess (4%), and the Section 87A rebate if applicable.
The calculator covers both the old and new tax regimes under FY 2026-27 slabs. Under the new regime, the key slabs are: nil up to ₹3 lakh, 5% from ₹3–7 lakh (with 87A rebate making it effectively nil for incomes up to ₹7 lakh), 10% from ₹7–10 lakh, 15% from ₹10–12 lakh, 20% from ₹12–15 lakh, and 30% above ₹15 lakh. Under the old regime, slabs start at nil up to ₹2.5 lakh and go through 5%, 20%, and 30% tiers.
Use this as your starting point — enter your income and see your baseline liability before any deductions, then layer in deductions to see the impact of each.
80C Deduction Calculator
The 80C Deduction Calculator helps you plan the allocation of your ₹1.5 lakh annual Section 80C limit across eligible instruments. The challenge with 80C is that most salaried employees already have EPF contributing to their limit — often ₹50,000–₹80,000 — leaving only ₹70,000–₹1,00,000 to allocate voluntarily.
The calculator lets you enter your EPF contribution (auto-deducted by employer), then plan the remainder across PPF, ELSS, life insurance premiums, NPS contributions, NSC, home loan principal, and children's tuition fees. It shows you how much of your ₹1.5 lakh limit is already consumed and how much remains to deploy.
This is particularly useful for employees who want to maximise the 80C benefit without over-investing in illiquid instruments. ELSS has the shortest lock-in (3 years) among 80C options; PPF has the longest (15 years) but highest guaranteed tax-free return. The calculator helps you weigh these trade-offs with your actual numbers.
HRA Calculator
The HRA Calculator computes your House Rent Allowance exemption — often the second-largest tax benefit available to salaried employees after 80C. HRA exemption reduces your gross taxable income by the exempt portion of your HRA, provided you are paying rent and your employer has structured HRA as part of your CTC.
The exempt amount is always the minimum of three values: actual HRA received from employer; actual annual rent paid minus 10% of annual basic salary; and 50% of annual basic salary for metro cities or 40% for non-metro cities. The calculator asks for all three inputs and shows exactly which constraint is binding — helping you determine whether increasing your rent payment would generate additional tax savings or whether you are already capped by one of the other constraints.
For employees in metro cities paying market rents, HRA exemption regularly runs to ₹1.5–₹2.5 lakh per year — a tax saving of ₹45,000–₹75,000 in the 30% bracket.
Old vs New Tax Regime Calculator
The Old vs New Tax Regime Calculator is the single most important tax decision tool for salaried employees. Every financial year, you choose which regime to file under — and the wrong choice costs real money.
Enter your salary income and all deductions applicable under the old regime: standard deduction (₹75,000), 80C (up to ₹1.5 lakh), 80D health insurance premiums (up to ₹25,000 for self or ₹50,000 for senior citizen parents), HRA exemption, home loan interest (up to ₹2 lakh under Section 24(b)), NPS under 80CCD(1B) (up to ₹50,000), and any other deductions. The calculator shows your tax liability under each regime side by side, the savings from choosing the better option, and the break-even deduction amount.
The general rule: if total deductions exceed ₹3.5–4 lakh, the old regime is usually better. Below that threshold, the new regime's flatter slab rates win. But the only way to know for certain is to compute your specific numbers.
TDS Calculator
The TDS Calculator helps you understand and verify the Tax Deducted at Source that your employer deducts monthly under Section 192. Employers are required to estimate your full-year income, compute the tax, and divide by 12 to deduct each month.
TDS errors are common: employers may not account for all your declared deductions correctly, may not factor in a mid-year salary increment, or may not switch you to the correct regime when you submit Form 12BB late. The TDS Calculator lets you compute what your monthly TDS should be based on your income and declarations, compare it with what is actually being deducted, and understand whether you are likely to face a tax demand or refund at ITR filing time.
This is especially useful in the second half of the financial year (October–March) when employees want to reconcile whether their Form 26AS tax credits will match their actual liability.
Salary Calculator
The Salary Calculator bridges the gap between CTC (Cost to Company) and take-home — which are often substantially different. A ₹15 lakh CTC might yield a take-home of only ₹10.5–₹11 lakh after EPF contributions, professional tax, and income tax TDS.
Enter your CTC and salary structure (basic, HRA, special allowance, LTA, reimbursements). The calculator shows your gross salary, all deductions (employee EPF at 12% of basic, professional tax at ₹2,400–₹2,500/year depending on state), TDS estimate, and final monthly in-hand. It also separates taxable and non-taxable components, so you can see exactly how much of your CTC is actually generating tax liability versus tax-exempt.
Particularly useful when evaluating a job offer — a ₹15 lakh CTC from Company A structured differently from a ₹14.5 lakh CTC from Company B may result in a higher take-home from Company B once you account for differences in HRA component, reimbursements, and structure.
How We Evaluated
These six tools were selected and evaluated against four criteria:
FY 2026-27 accuracy. Each calculator was verified against the current year's income tax slabs, standard deduction amount (₹75,000), Section 87A rebate limit (₹7 lakh under new regime), and surcharge thresholds. Calculators using outdated slabs were excluded.
No sign-up, always free. Every calculation runs in the browser without creating an account. No trial period, no per-calculation charge, no data submission requirement.
Both regime support. Given that the regime choice is the most consequential annual tax decision for salaried employees, any calculator that models only one regime was disqualified from this list.
Edge case handling. Surcharge for high-income earners, marginal relief (which limits the effective tax increase when income crosses a slab threshold), Section 87A rebate interaction with surcharge, and professional tax variation by state — these edge cases matter for many salaried employees and were checked across all calculators listed here.