A worked structure for estimating tax and take-home on a ₹15 lakh salary.
Inputs To Collect
Annual fixed pay, basic salary, HRA, PF, professional tax, bonus and eligible deductions.
Use actual payslip or offer-letter values wherever possible.
Step 1: CTC To Gross Salary
The default breakup sets basic at 40% of CTC (₹6 lakh), HRA at 50% of basic (₹3 lakh) and bonus at 8% of CTC (₹1.2 lakh). Employer PF is capped at ₹36,000 a year, which is 12% of the ₹25,000 monthly wage ceiling, and the gratuity provision is about ₹28,846. The remaining ₹4.15 lakh is special allowance.
Employer PF and gratuity are part of CTC but not salary paid to you, so gross salary is about ₹14.35 lakh.
Step 2: New Regime Tax
Taxable income is ₹14.35 lakh minus the ₹75,000 standard deduction, about ₹13.60 lakh. Slab tax is nil on the first ₹4 lakh, ₹20,000 on ₹4–8 lakh, ₹40,000 on ₹8–12 lakh and about ₹24,000 at 15% on the rest, about ₹84,000 in all.
With 4% cess, annual tax is about ₹87,384, or ₹7,282 a month. The rebate doesn't apply because taxable income is above ₹12 lakh.
Step 3: Monthly Take-Home
Subtract employee PF of ₹36,000, professional tax of ₹2,400 and income tax of ₹87,384 from gross salary. Annual take-home is about ₹13.09 lakh, an average of about ₹1,09,100 a month including the bonus.
If the ₹1.2 lakh bonus is paid once a year and TDS is spread evenly, regular monthly credits are closer to ₹99,100, with the bonus arriving separately.
What About The Old Regime?
With only employee PF under 80C and professional tax, old-regime tax here is far higher. At this gross salary, the old regime needs roughly ₹5.3 lakh of deductions and exemptions beyond its ₹50,000 standard deduction to break even, which usually means a full HRA exemption, 80C, 80D and home-loan interest together.
What To Compare
Compare new and old regime tax, monthly TDS and monthly take-home.
Check whether variable pay is included in monthly cash or paid later.
Also compare the TDS on your payslip with the calculator's monthly figure. If payroll uses the old regime or a higher bonus estimate, TDS can be more than needed, and the excess comes back only as a refund after you file.
Next Step
Open the salary and tax calculators, then replace defaults with your real breakup.
The result will shift if your employer contributes PF on full basic, your state's professional tax differs, or part of the CTC is employer NPS, which reduces taxable income under both regimes.