Income Tax Calculator - Free Online Calculator

1. 1

   Enter your total gross annual income - salary plus any business, freelance, interest, capital gains and other income, before any deductions.

2. 2

   Enter Section 80C deductions (PF, ELSS, life insurance premium, principal repayment on home loan, tax-saver FD, etc., capped at ₹1.5 lakh).

3. 3

   Enter Section 80D (medical insurance premiums for self/family/parents) and any other deductions you genuinely qualify for.

4. 4

   Enter HRA, home loan interest (24b) and any other old-regime-specific exemptions.

5. 5

   Compare the tax liability shown for the New and Old Regimes side-by-side.

6. 6

   Pick the regime that gives a lower total tax liability - and remember to opt for it explicitly while filing your return if it's the old regime.

Under both regimes the tax is calculated by applying slab rates to portions of your taxable income, summing them, applying the Section 87A rebate if eligible, and then adding 4% health and education cess. The new regime applies slabs to your gross income (less only the standard ₹75,000 salary deduction). The old regime applies slabs to taxable income after subtracting 80C, 80D, HRA, home loan interest and other deductions. The calculator does this transparently so you can see exactly which slab contributed how much.

• Salaried employees deciding which regime to declare to HR at the start of the financial year. Run the projection in April with your expected annual CTC and likely deductions to set the right regime and avoid a year-end TDS scramble.
• Self-employed professionals planning their advance tax payments. Compute liability, divide into the four advance-tax instalments (15%, 45%, 75%, 100% by 15 Jun, 15 Sep, 15 Dec, 15 Mar) and pay on schedule to avoid 234B/234C interest.
• Senior citizens evaluating whether the higher basic exemption in the old regime (₹3 lakh for 60-79, ₹5 lakh for 80+) plus 80TTB ₹50,000 deduction beats the simpler new regime. For most seniors with mostly interest income and no large deductions, the old regime still wins.
• Tax-loss harvesters and equity investors checking how a year of lower active income affects total tax - useful when planning whether to book LTCG above the ₹1.25 lakh exemption this year or carry forward.

• Comparing regimes after only adding 80C. The old regime usually loses if 80C is the only deduction. It typically wins only when you stack 80C + 80D + HRA + home loan interest + NPS together.
• Forgetting that the new regime is the default. If you don't explicitly declare the old regime to your employer or while filing, you're on the new regime by default - which may or may not be optimal.
• Treating the 87A rebate as a deduction. It's a rebate that disappears entirely once you cross the ₹7 lakh (new) or ₹5 lakh (old) threshold. There's no taper - even ₹1 over the limit kills the rebate.
• Ignoring the standard deduction. Both regimes give salaried employees a ₹50,000 / ₹75,000 standard deduction without any documentation - never miss claiming it.
• Mixing assessment year and financial year. FY 2024-25 income is filed in AY 2025-26. The slabs you enter must match the financial year of the income, not the year you file.

• Run the regime comparison in April when CTC structures are negotiated. Restructuring HRA vs basic vs special allowance can swing your old-regime tax meaningfully.
• If you're close to the 87A threshold (₹6.9-7L new or ₹4.9-5L old), an extra 80C contribution to NPS or PPF can drop you under the cap and save the entire tax on the slab.
• Don't ignore 80CCD(1B) - the additional ₹50,000 NPS deduction sits on top of 80C and is one of the few remaining ways to push the old-regime taxable income further down.
• If you have a home loan and HRA both, both are fully claimable in the old regime if you genuinely live in rented accommodation while paying EMI on a different property - common for those who bought a home in another city.
• Use this calculator's regime comparison as a sanity check against your Form 16 every year. If your declared TDS doesn't match the regime you'd have picked, consider switching for the next year.