Income tax calculator
How much tax does this year owe, and is the old or the new regime cheaper?
Before any deduction. Salary, and anything else the return will carry.
Changes the old-regime exemption limit only. The new regime is the same at every age.
EPF, PPF, ELSS, LIC, principal on the home loan, school fees. Capped at ₹1.5 L.
The extra ₹50,000, over and above 80C.
Health premiums. Capped at ₹25,000 here even if you are 60+, matching the reference — a senior citizen’s real ₹50,000 limit is not applied.
Same ₹25,000 cap, same caveat for parents over 60.
No ceiling in law, and none applied here. Eight years from the first repayment.
Self-occupied. Capped at ₹2 L.
The exempt part of your HRA — the HRA calculator works it out for you.
₹97,500for FY 2025-26, on the new regime
- Old regime
- ₹2,57,400
- New regime
- ₹97,500
- Saved by choosing new
- ₹1,59,900
- Deductions counted
- ₹0
- Effective rate
- 6.5%
- On your next rupee
- 15.6%
FY 2025-26 slabs. The standard deduction is applied for you — ₹50,000 old, ₹75,000 new — so do not add it above. FY 2025-26 is the latest year this calculator carries; a later Budget will not be in here until someone puts it in.
- Old regime
- New regime
| FY starting | Taxable (old) | Old regime tax | Taxable (new) | New regime tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | ₹14,50,000 | ₹2,57,400 | ₹14,25,000 | ₹1,27,400 |
| 2025 | ₹14,50,000 | ₹2,57,400 | ₹14,25,000 | ₹97,500 |
Two regimes exist and you get to pick one, so the year's tax is really two sums and a choice between them. The new regime has wider slabs and almost no deductions; the old regime has narrow slabs and a long list of things you can subtract. Neither is cheaper in general — it turns entirely on how much you can actually claim. Put in your gross for the year and whatever deductions you genuinely have receipts for, and this runs both computations side by side, applies the standard deduction and the section 87A rebate for you, and names the one that costs less.
A worked example
A salaried person under 60, gross ₹18,00,000 for FY 2025-26, who has genuinely claimable: ₹1,50,000 under 80C, ₹50,000 of extra NPS under 80CCD(1B), ₹25,000 of health premium for the family and ₹25,000 for parents under 80D, ₹2,00,000 of home-loan interest under 24(b), and an HRA exemption of ₹2,40,000. Set the fields above to those and the page returns:
- ₹1,35,720 — the old regime, and it is the cheaper one
- ₹1,50,800 under the new regime, so choosing old saves ₹15,080
- ₹6,90,000 of deductions counted, on ₹10,60,000 of taxable income
- an effective rate of 7.54% of gross, and 31.2% on the next rupee earned
Take those deductions away and the answer flips completely. The same ₹18,00,000 with nothing to claim is ₹1,50,800 under the new regime against ₹3,51,000 under the old — the new regime saves ₹2,00,200. Same salary, same year, a ₹2 lakh swing decided by paperwork.
The old regime is a climb
Here is that ₹18,00,000 with the deductions added one at a time. The new regime does not move, because it does not care.
Four of the five old-regime bars are worse than the flat new-regime one. Only the last is better.
The crossover on this income is about ₹6.42 lakh of deductions. That is a demanding number: it takes a maxed-out 80C, the full extra NPS, both health premiums, ₹2 lakh of home-loan interest and a real rent to reach. Which is why the new regime suits most people and the old regime suits a specific person — one paying a home loan and rent, or one whose salary structure was built around exemptions.
What each regime actually lets you claim
| Old regime | New regime | |
|---|---|---|
| Standard deduction on salary | ₹50,000 | ₹75,000 |
| 80C — EPF, PPF, ELSS, LIC, school fees | up to ₹1,50,000 | not available |
| 80CCD(1B) — your own extra NPS | up to ₹50,000 | not available |
| 80D — health insurance | yes, within limits | not available |
| 24(b) — interest on a self-occupied home | up to ₹2,00,000 | not available |
| HRA exemption under 10(13A) | yes, on the three-way test | not available |
| 80CCD(2) — employer’s NPS contribution | yes — but not modelled here | yes — but not modelled here |
| Slab widths | narrow — 30% starts early | wide, six rates |
| Section 87A rebate, FY 2025-26 | up to ₹12,500 | up to ₹60,000 |
The old regime buys deductions with narrower slabs. That is the entire trade.
What this number does not account for
This is a slab computation on one figure of income with a fixed list of deductions. Real returns are messier, and each of these can move the answer by more than the regime choice does.
Deductions this page has no field for
There is no 80G for donations, no 80TTA or 80TTB on savings and deposit interest, no 80DD, 80DDB or 80U for disability and treatment, no 80CCD(2) for your employer’s NPS contribution, and no professional tax under 16(iii). If you claim any of them, the old-regime figure here is too high — and 80CCD(2) is one of the few that survives into the new regime too, so that column is overstated as well.
Income taxed at its own rate, not at slabs
Everything you type into gross is run through the slabs. Long-term equity gains are charged under section 112A and short-term under 111A at their own rates, and lottery or game-show winnings at a flat rate under 115BB. Fold any of that into gross and the answer is wrong in both regimes. Capital gains belong in the capital gains calculator, not here.
The 80D senior limit is not applied
Both 80D fields are capped at the below-60 limit whatever age you select, so a senior citizen’s larger entitlement for their own or their parents’ premium is not granted. If that is your situation, the old-regime tax here reads higher than your return will.
It is a liability, not a payment
TDS already deducted, advance tax paid, and interest under sections 234B and 234C for paying late or short are all outside this figure. So is the cost of getting it wrong: this is not a filing, and the return is where the numbers are declared.
One year’s law, and only two years of it
The calculator carries FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26. The table shows both so you can see what the Budget changed — the old-regime bars are identical in the two years because the old slabs did not move; only the new ones did. A later Finance Act is not in here until somebody puts it in.
The age setting only touches the old regime
Turning 60 or 80 raises the basic exemption limit under the old slabs and does nothing at all to the new ones, which are the same at every age. On the worked example above, the same person at 60–79 pays ₹1,33,120 and at 80+ pays ₹1,22,720 — while the new-regime figure stays at ₹1,50,800.
Where to go next
The HRA field above is the one people guess at, and guessing costs the most: the HRA exemption calculator runs the three-way test on rent, basic and city so you can paste a real number in rather than your annual rent. If the 80C row is where you are short, the ELSS calculator shows what a section 80C equity investment does over its three-year lock-in — the only 80C option with equity returns attached. And once you know the liability, the TDS calculator covers the other half of the arithmetic: what has already been deducted at source, and therefore what is actually left to pay.
Which tax regime is better, old or new?
It depends on one number — how much you can claim under the old regime. The new regime allows the standard deduction of ₹75,000 and very little else; the old regime allows ₹50,000 plus 80C, 80CCD(1B), 80D, home-loan interest under 24(b), HRA under 10(13A) and more, but taxes what is left at narrower slabs. So the old regime only wins once your deductions are large enough to outrun the wider new slabs. On a gross of ₹18,00,000 for FY 2025-26 that crossover sits at roughly ₹6.42 lakh of deductions: below it the new regime is cheaper, above it the old one is. Type your own gross in and add your deductions one at a time — the moment the headline switches regimes is your crossover, and it is different for everybody.
What salary is tax-free under the new regime for FY 2025-26?
A gross of ₹12,75,000 comes out at zero. The standard deduction of ₹75,000 takes taxable income to ₹12,00,000, which is the section 87A rebate limit under the new regime for FY 2025-26 as amended by the Finance Act 2025, and the rebate wipes out the slab tax entirely. One rupee more of taxable income puts you past the limit — the statute then caps the tax at the amount by which your income exceeds the limit (marginal relief), which is why the figure climbs in single rupees rather than jumping by the whole rebate. This calculator applies that relief.
Can I switch between the old and the new regime every year?
If your income is salary, yes — the new regime is the default under section 115BAC and you can choose the old one when you file, and choose differently next year. If you have business or professional income the choice is far more rigid: you opt out of the new regime by filing Form 10-IEA before the return due date, and once you switch back to the new regime you cannot opt out again. What you tell your employer in April only sets the TDS; the regime that counts is the one on the return you actually file.
Do I need to add the standard deduction to the deduction fields?
No, and adding it will understate your tax. The calculator applies it before the slabs — ₹50,000 under the old regime and ₹75,000 under the new one, as it stands for FY 2025-26 — because it is not optional and not something you claim. The deduction fields are only for the things you choose to invest in or spend on. Note also that everything you type into those fields is used by the old-regime computation only; the new regime ignores them by design, which is exactly the trade-off the page is showing you.
Why is the tax here different from the figure on my Form 16?
Because this is your liability for the year, not the balance left to pay. Your employer has been deducting TDS every month against the regime you declared in April, and there may be TDS on interest, dividends or rent as well — all of it shows up in Form 26AS and the AIS. What you owe at filing is this figure minus that TDS and any advance tax; if the difference is negative you are due a refund. A large shortfall can also attract interest under sections 234B and 234C, which is not computed here.
This page starts from typical figures. In Hundo the same calculator opens on your own — the loan, the deposit, the salary already on the ledger — and says where each number came from.