How to Calculate Your Exact Take-Home Salary (5-Minute Guide)
Skip the confusion: Most people get their salary calculation wrong because they don't understand CTC components. This guide shows you exactly how to use our calculator to match your actual payslip—down to the rupee.
⚡ Quick Start
Have your offer letter ready? Jump to Step 1. Need to understand CTC first? Read the sections below.
Before You Start: What You Need
📋 Information Required
- Annual CTC (from your offer letter or salary slip)
- Basic salary breakdown (% of CTC or absolute amount)
- Your investments (80C, health insurance premiums)
- Rent details (if you claim HRA)
- City type (metro or non-metro, for HRA calculation)
Understanding Your CTC Breakdown
Most Important: CTC is not your salary. It's the total cost your company pays for you, including benefits you never see in your bank account.
What You Get
- Basic Salary
- HRA
- Other Allowances
- Variable Pay/Bonus
What You Don't Get
- Employer EPF Contribution
- Gratuity Allocation
- Medical Insurance Premium
- Other Company Benefits
💡 Pro Tip: Basic Salary Matters Most
Your basic salary determines your EPF contribution, which affects both your 80C limit and retirement savings. A higher basic means more EPF, which means more tax savings in the old regime.
Step 1: Enter Your Annual CTC
What to enter: The total CTC mentioned in your offer letter or salary slip.
Example: If your offer letter says "Annual CTC: ₹12,00,000", enter 1200000
Common mistake: Don't confuse CTC with gross salary or in-hand salary. CTC is always the highest number.
Step 2: Set Your Basic Salary
This is where most people mess up. You have two options:
Option A: Percentage
Most common. Basic is usually 25-50% of CTC.
Basic: 40% = ₹4.8L
Option B: Absolute
When you know the exact basic amount.
Basic: ₹5L (fixed)
🎯 How to Find Your Basic Salary
- Check your offer letter's salary breakup
- Look at your salary slip (usually the first item)
- If unclear, use 40% of CTC as a starting point
- Adjust until the calculator result matches your payslip
Step 3: Choose Your Tax Regime
This decision can save or cost you thousands. Here's how to decide:
Choose NEW if:
- You don't invest much in 80C
- You don't pay high rent
- You want simplicity
- Your total deductions < ₹2.5L
Choose OLD if:
- You max out 80C (₹1.5L)
- You pay high rent (HRA benefit)
- You have home loan interest
- Total deductions > ₹2.5L
Not sure? Our calculator shows results for both regimes. Choose the one with higher take-home!
Step 4: Enter Your Deductions (Old Regime Only)
Skip this if you chose the new regime. For old regime users:
Section 80C (Max ₹1.5L)
Include your annual investments in:
- EPF contribution (employee part)
- PPF deposits
- ELSS mutual funds
- Life insurance premium
- Home loan principal
- NSC, tax-saving FDs
Section 80D (Max ₹75K)
Annual health insurance premiums for:
- Self and family: ₹25,000
- Parents (below 60): ₹25,000
- Senior parents (above 60): ₹50,000
Home Loan Interest (Max ₹2L)
Annual interest paid on home loan. Not the principal amount.
Interest portion: ₹1.8L (enter this)
Principal portion: ₹4.2L (goes to 80C)
Step 5: HRA Calculation (If You Pay Rent)
Only applicable in the old regime:
Monthly Rent: Enter your actual monthly rent amount.
City Type:
- Metro: Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata (50% HRA exemption rate)
- Non-Metro: All other cities (40% HRA exemption rate)
Auto-calculation: Our calculator automatically computes the minimum of three HRA exemption formulas. You don't need to calculate manually.
Step 6: Advanced Features & Shortcuts
Unlock the full power of the calculator with these advanced features:
💰 Deduct Bonus/RSU from CTC
If your CTC includes variable pay (bonus, RSUs, ESOPs) that you don't receive monthly:
- Find the "Deduct Bonus/RSU" field in the calculator
- Enter the annual bonus/RSU amount that's included in CTC but not in monthly salary
- The calculator will exclude this from your monthly calculations
Enter ₹3L in "Deduct Bonus/RSU" → Monthly calculations based on ₹12L
🏦 EPF+ (Voluntary PF Contribution)
Contribute more than the mandatory 12% EPF for extra tax savings:
- Look for the "EPF+ / Voluntary PF" checkbox or field
- Enable it to contribute additional amounts to your EPF account
- Extra EPF contributions count toward 80C deduction (₹1.5L limit)
- Helps maximize tax savings if you haven't used full 80C limit
👴 Max Out Pension Contribution
Optimize your Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) contribution:
- Find the "Max out Pension" checkbox in EPF settings
- When enabled, calculates maximum EPS contribution allowed by law
- Useful for higher salaries where pension contribution is capped
- Shows accurate EPS vs EPF split in your deductions
📊 Max Out Tax Deductions (Auto-Optimizer)
Let the calculator automatically maximize your tax savings:
- Look for "Max Out Tax Deductions" feature
- Automatically fills 80C up to ₹1.5L limit
- Optimizes 80D health insurance deductions
- Suggests optimal deductions based on your salary structure
💡 Smart Feature: This is useful for "what-if" scenarios to see maximum tax savings potential
Input Shortcuts: K, L, Cr Notation
⚡ Fast Number Entry
Save time with shorthand notation instead of typing long numbers:
Notation Guide
- K = Thousand (₹1,000)
- L = Lakh (₹1,00,000)
- Cr = Crore (₹1,00,00,000)
Usage Examples
50K → ₹50,000
1.5L → ₹1,50,000
2Cr → ₹2,00,00,000
Download & Export Your Results
📄 World-Class Visual PDF (Unlike Any Other Calculator)
Our PDF tax slips are in a league of their own. No other salary calculator in India generates reports like this:
🎨 What Makes Our PDFs Special:
- SVG Donut Charts - Visual breakdown of monthly income (Tax/EPF/Other/Take-home) with percentages
- Waterfall Charts - Animated flow showing CTC → Exclusions → Gross → Deductions → Take-home
- Dual Tax Regime Comparison - Old vs New side-by-side with detailed slab breakdowns
- Top Stats Bar - CTC, Gross, Basic, Tax, Monthly, Savings at a glance
- Efficiency Metrics - Progress bars for effective tax rate and take-home percentage
- Apple-Inspired Design - Minimalist, professional layout with perfect typography
- Print-Optimized - A4 format with proper margins for physical printing
PDF Tax Slip Features
- Interactive visual charts (donut + waterfall)
- Complete tax slab breakdown for both regimes
- Monthly breakdown with all deductions
- Savings comparison (annual + monthly)
- Professional branding for HR discussions
- Include with offer letters or financial planning
Excel (XLSX)
- Editable spreadsheet with formulas
- Customize calculations
- Financial planning scenarios
- Archive your salary history
CSV Export
Raw data format for custom analysis, import into other tools, or integrate with financial software.
🎯 How to Download
- Complete your salary calculation
- Look for "Download" or "Export" button in results panel
- Choose format: PDF (with charts), Excel (XLSX), or CSV
- File downloads instantly - no email required, no signup needed
Automatic Calculations
🤖 What the Calculator Does Automatically
No manual math required - these are calculated in real-time:
Tax Components
- Income tax slab calculation
- Health & Education Cess (4%)
- Tax rebate under 87A
- Standard deduction (₹50K)
- Surcharge (if applicable)
Deductions & Exemptions
- HRA exemption (minimum of 3 formulas)
- EPF contribution (12% of basic)
- Professional tax (state-specific)
- 80C/80D limits enforcement
- Gross vs Net salary split
🧮 HRA Auto-Calculation Details
The calculator automatically computes HRA exemption as the minimum of these three:
- Actual HRA received from employer
- Rent paid minus 10% of basic salary
- 50% of basic (metro) or 40% of basic (non-metro)
You just enter rent and city type - the complex calculation happens behind the scenes!
Smart Insights: Your Personal Financial Advisor
🧠 Automatic Financial Intelligence
Get instant, personalized financial guidance without any extra work. The Smart Insights panel automatically generates intelligent recommendations as you calculate your salary:
💰 Smart Savings
Tax Regime Optimization
- Compares Old vs New tax regime
- Shows exact ₹ savings amount (annual + monthly)
- Recommends optimal regime for your salary
- Updates in real-time as you adjust inputs
📈 Building Wealth
Investment Projections
- Calculates 15-year wealth at 12% returns
- Based on 20% of your monthly take-home
- Shows total corpus you can build
- Motivates disciplined investing
🏠 Property Power
Home Loan Eligibility
- Calculates max home loan you can afford
- Shows maximum EMI (45% of take-home)
- Assumes 8.5% interest, 20-year tenure
- Helps plan property purchases
👥 Peer Comparison
Coming Soon
- Compare with peers in similar roles
- Industry salary benchmarks
- Experience-based comparisons
🎯 Where to Find Smart Insights
Desktop: Look for the "Smart Insights" panel on the right side of the calculator (4th column)
Mobile: Swipe to the "Insights" panel (3rd panel in the swipe navigation)
Auto-Updates: All insights refresh automatically as you change CTC, deductions, or tax regime
Step 7: Understand Your Results
Once you've entered all details, you'll see:
📊 What the Results Mean
Monthly Take-Home: Money in your bank account every month
Annual Tax: Total income tax you'll pay (including cess)
Annual Take-home: Your monthly take-home × 12
Effective Tax Rate: Total tax percentage on your gross income
Take-Home %: Percentage of CTC you actually receive
🎯 Accuracy Check
Compare our calculator result with your actual payslip:
- Monthly take-home should match your net salary
- EPF deduction should match (12% of basic, max ₹1,800)
- Tax deduction should be close (may vary due to TDS adjustments)
If there's a significant difference, review your basic salary and deduction entries.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
❌ Using gross salary instead of CTC
CTC is always higher than gross. Check your offer letter for the correct CTC.
❌ Wrong basic salary calculation
Basic salary affects EPF and HRA. Get this wrong, and your entire calculation is off.
❌ Including employer EPF in 80C
Only your EPF contribution (employee part) counts toward 80C, not the employer's.
❌ Adding home loan principal to both 80C and home loan interest
Principal goes to 80C, interest is separate. Don't double-count.
Ready to Calculate?
Use our calculator with the knowledge you've gained from this guide.
Calculate My Salary →Still Not Matching Your Payslip?
If our calculator result doesn't match your actual take-home:
- Double-check your CTC breakdown — Verify basic salary, HRA, and other components
- Review deduction entries — Ensure you're not double-counting or missing items
- Check for company-specific deductions — Some companies have additional deductions not covered here
- Consider variable pay timing — Bonuses might be prorated differently
Still having issues? Contact us with your calculation details, and we'll help you debug.