Compare your tax under the new and old regimes for income earned from April 2026 to March 2027, earlier called AY 2027-28. It includes surcharge, cess, the Section 87A rebate and marginal relief, and shows the exact deductions you would need before the old regime beats the new one.
Rates checked on by CA Ashish Gambhir
The Union Budget 2026 left the slab structure untouched. The reset announced in Budget 2025 carries through the whole of FY 2026-27, which the new Income-tax Act, 2025 calls Tax Year 2026-27, so the figures below are the ones that apply when you file your return in 2027. The new regime remains the default. If you want the old regime you have to choose it, and salaried taxpayers can make that choice afresh every year.
| Taxable income | Rate | Tax on this band |
|---|---|---|
| Up to ₹4,00,000 | Nil | ₹0 |
| ₹4,00,001 to ₹8,00,000 | 5% | ₹20,000 |
| ₹8,00,001 to ₹12,00,000 | 10% | ₹40,000 |
| ₹12,00,001 to ₹16,00,000 | 15% | ₹60,000 |
| ₹16,00,001 to ₹20,00,000 | 20% | ₹80,000 |
| ₹20,00,001 to ₹24,00,000 | 25% | ₹1,00,000 |
| Above ₹24,00,000 | 30% | On the excess |
A slab rate applies only to the income inside that band, never to your whole income. Crossing into a higher slab does not reprice the rupees below it. This is the single most common misunderstanding about Indian income tax, and it is why a raise never leaves you worse off.
| Taxable income | Below 60 | 60 to 79 | 80 and above |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to ₹2,50,000 | Nil | Nil | Nil |
| ₹2,50,001 to ₹3,00,000 | 5% | Nil | Nil |
| ₹3,00,001 to ₹5,00,000 | 5% | 5% | Nil |
| ₹5,00,001 to ₹10,00,000 | 20% | 20% | 20% |
| Above ₹10,00,000 | 30% | 30% | 30% |
The honest answer is that it depends on one number: how much you can actually deduct. Everything else is noise. The new regime gives you lower rates and a larger standard deduction but takes away almost every deduction. The old regime keeps the deductions but taxes you harder on what is left.
So the question is not which regime is better in general. It is whether your deductions are large enough to outweigh the rate difference at your income level. That is exactly what the breakeven figure in the calculator tells you. Enter your income, and it solves for the deduction amount at which the two regimes cost the same. Claim more than that and the old regime wins. Claim less and the new one does.
| Gross salary | Deductions needed for old regime to win |
|---|---|
| ₹10,00,000 | Old regime cannot win |
| ₹15,00,000 | ₹5,44,000 |
| ₹20,00,000 | ₹7,09,000 |
| ₹25,00,000 | ₹8,00,000 |
| ₹50,00,000 | ₹8,00,000 |
These figures come from the same engine that drives the calculator, for a salaried taxpayer below sixty with no employer NPS. Up to ₹12.75 lakh of salary the new regime already makes your tax nil, so the old regime can only match it, never beat it. Treat the rest as the shape of the decision rather than your personal answer, because HRA in particular swings the figure a long way depending on your rent and your city.
Salaried taxpayers and pensioners get ₹75,000 under the new regime and ₹50,000 under the old one. No proof or investment is needed. It comes off before the slabs are applied. Business and professional income does not attract it, which is why the calculator asks about your income type.
Under the new regime the rebate runs up to ₹60,000, which wipes out the tax on any taxable income up to ₹12 lakh. For a salaried person that means gross income up to ₹12.75 lakh carries no tax at all once the standard deduction is applied. Under the old regime the rebate is ₹12,500 and stops at ₹5 lakh of taxable income. Neither rebate applies to income taxed at special rates, so capital gains do not get this treatment.
Two forms of marginal relief are built in. The first stops the tax on income just above ₹12 lakh from exceeding the income earned above that line, which prevents a taxpayer at ₹12,10,000 paying more than one at ₹12,00,000. The second caps the surcharge so that crossing ₹50 lakh, ₹1 crore, ₹2 crore or ₹5 crore never costs more in extra tax than the extra income earned. Most free calculators skip both and overstate the liability near those thresholds.
Surcharge applies at 10% above ₹50 lakh, 15% above ₹1 crore and 25% above ₹2 crore. The old regime carries a further 37% band above ₹5 crore; the new regime caps at 25%. Health and education cess of 4% is then charged on the tax plus surcharge in every case.
Your employer's contribution to NPS under Section 80CCD(2) is one of the few deductions the new regime still allows. The calculator takes it off in both regimes, so enter only the amount within your limit.
Under the new regime, yes, for ordinary income. The Section 87A rebate of ₹60,000 cancels the tax on taxable income up to ₹12 lakh. A salaried person also gets the ₹75,000 standard deduction, so gross salary up to ₹12.75 lakh produces no tax. Capital gains, lottery and other special-rate income are taxed on their own terms and the rebate does not reach them.
It depends on your income. Up to ₹12.75 lakh of salary the new regime already makes your tax nil, so the old regime cannot do better. Above that the calculator works out the exact figure: about ₹5.44 lakh of deductions at ₹15 lakh of salary, and about ₹8 lakh from ₹25 lakh upwards.
A salaried taxpayer with no business income can choose afresh each year when filing. Someone with business or professional income can move from the new regime to the old one only once, and once they move back they cannot return. That asymmetry is worth thinking about before a business owner opts out of the default.
No. The Act came into force on 1 April 2026. It renumbers many sections and replaces "previous year" and "assessment year" with a single "tax year", so FY 2026-27 is now Tax Year 2026-27. It did not change the rates, slabs, rebate or standard deduction, so your tax is the same. Only the section numbers and terms you cite on forms differ.
Yes. Your employer's NPS contribution under Section 80CCD(2) is allowed in both regimes: up to 14% of basic pay plus DA in the new regime, and up to 10% in the old regime for private sector employees (14% for government employees).
The exempt portion is not the same as what your employer pays you. It is the least of the actual HRA received, the rent paid less ten per cent of salary, and fifty per cent of salary in a metro or forty per cent elsewhere. If you are unsure of yours, it is the figure your employer reports in Part B of Form 16.
Capital gains of any kind, income from house property beyond the interest deduction, clubbing provisions, losses carried forward, foreign income, presumptive taxation for small businesses and professionals, and relief for salary arrears. Any of these can change the answer materially. The figure here is a planning estimate for ordinary salary and business income, not a return.
Salaried people and others without business income (ITR-1 and ITR-2) file by 31 July after the year ends. Since Budget 2026, business and professional taxpayers who do not need a tax audit (ITR-3 and ITR-4) have until 31 August. Tax audit cases file by 31 October, and transfer pricing cases by 30 November. Dates can move by notification, so check the current position before you rely on them.
