Enter your CTC and see your exact monthly in-hand salary with full breakup
Enter your CTC to see results
Your full salary breakup will appear here
Have a take-home in mind?
Enter your desired monthly take-home — we'll find the CTC you should ask for.
To get — per month in hand, ask for a CTC of
—
Based on: Basic —% · HRA —% of basic · PT ₹—/month
Learn
Almost every salaried employee in India has felt this. You get an offer letter that says ₹12 LPA. You do the math — ₹1,00,000 per month. Your first salary comes and it's ₹72,000. Nobody told you about PF, gratuity, professional tax, or how the employer's contributions are baked into your CTC. This guide breaks it all down, piece by piece.
CTC stands for Cost to Company. It is the total amount the company spends on you in a year — not the amount you receive. When a company says your CTC is ₹12 LPA, they mean they are spending ₹12 lakhs annually on your employment. That includes your salary, yes, but also their own contributions to your PF account, gratuity provisions, and any other benefits they provide.
The CTC figure is what makes numbers in job offers look attractive. A company paying ₹12 LPA CTC is not paying you ₹1 lakh per month — they are spending ₹1 lakh per month total, across your salary and their own obligations. Your actual in-hand will always be less.
Basic salary is the fixed core component of your pay. Typically it is 40% to 50% of your CTC, though this varies by company. It is fully taxable — there are no exemptions on basic salary.
Why does basic matter so much? Because almost every other component is calculated as a percentage of basic. PF contributions (both yours and your employer's), HRA, and gratuity — all derived from basic. A higher basic means higher PF deductions from your monthly pay, but also higher PF savings over time and a larger gratuity payout when you leave after 5 years.
How this calculator uses it: You set Basic % (default 40%). On a ₹12 LPA CTC, Basic = ₹12,00,000 × 40% = ₹4,80,000 per year = ₹40,000 per month.
HRA is an allowance paid to cover your rent expenses. It is calculated as a percentage of your basic salary — commonly 40% to 50%. If you live in a rented house and submit rent receipts to your employer, a significant portion of your HRA is exempt from income tax under Section 10(13A).
If you own your home and don't pay rent, you cannot claim the HRA exemption — HRA still comes to you, but the full amount becomes taxable. This makes HRA one of the most useful components for people living in rented accommodation.
How this calculator uses it: You set HRA % (default 50% of Basic). On ₹40,000 basic, HRA = ₹40,000 × 50% = ₹20,000 per month.
Special Allowance is not a fixed component — it is whatever remains of your gross salary after Basic and HRA are assigned. Companies call it different things: performance allowance, supplementary allowance, or just special allowance. The name doesn't matter. It is a balancing figure.
Special Allowance is fully taxable. There is no exemption available on it. This is why many tax planners suggest maximising other components like HRA and reimbursements — to reduce the amount sitting in special allowance.
How this calculator uses it: Special Allowance = Gross Salary − Basic − HRA. It is auto-calculated and shown in the breakup.
Gross salary is the total salary you are entitled to before any deductions are made from your side. It is calculated as CTC minus the employer's contributions (employer PF and gratuity). These employer contributions are included in CTC but never actually reach your payroll — they go directly to government accounts or provisions.
Formula: Gross Salary = CTC − Employer PF − Gratuity
Every month, 12% of your basic salary is deducted from your in-hand pay and deposited into your EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) account. This is mandatory for companies with 20 or more employees. The money earns interest (currently around 8.25% per year) and accumulates over your career.
You can withdraw it when you leave a job (after a waiting period) or fully at retirement. Many employees see PF deduction as losing money — it isn't. It is forced savings with a decent interest rate and full withdrawal rights. If your company doesn't have PF (small businesses are often exempt), toggle it off in the calculator.
Formula: Employee PF = Basic Salary × 12%. On ₹40,000 basic, PF deduction = ₹4,800/month.
Your employer also contributes 12% of your basic salary to your PF account each month. Unlike employee PF which comes out of your salary, employer PF comes out of the company's budget — but it is included in your CTC. This is one of the biggest reasons CTC and in-hand are different.
If your CTC is ₹12 LPA and basic is ₹4.8 LPA, employer PF = ₹57,600 per year. That ₹57,600 goes to your PF account, not your bank account. The company counts it as part of the ₹12 LPA they are spending on you. The money is yours — just not immediately in your hands.
Formula: Employer PF = Basic Salary × 12%. Shown in the calculator as a CTC component, not a deduction from your pay.
Gratuity is a one-time payment made by the employer when you leave after completing 5 or more years of continuous service. It is a statutory benefit under the Payment of Gratuity Act. Companies provision for it every month and include it in CTC — so your CTC looks larger, but that money isn't paid to you monthly.
The gratuity rate is 15 days of basic salary for every year of service, which works out to approximately 4.81% of annual basic. If you leave before 5 years, you forfeit the gratuity entirely in most cases. This is why companies like including gratuity in CTC — it inflates the number but most employees never stay long enough to collect it.
Formula: Gratuity = Basic Salary × 4.81%. On ₹4,80,000 annual basic, gratuity provision = ₹23,088 per year = ₹1,924 per month built into your CTC.
Professional Tax is a state-level tax levied on salaried individuals. Not every state in India charges it. States that do include Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, among others. The maximum PT allowed under law is ₹2,500 per year.
Most states charge ₹200/month (₹2,400/year) for those earning above a certain threshold. Your employer deducts it from your monthly salary and remits it to the state government. It is a small amount but it does reduce your in-hand. If you work in a state with no professional tax — like Delhi or Haryana — set this to ₹0 in the calculator.
States with no PT: Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and most Union Territories. Set PT to ₹0 if you are in any of these.
Here is the complete path from CTC to your bank account, step by step.
Start with your CTC — the total cost the company bears.
Subtract Employer PF + Gratuity — these are the company's contributions that go directly to your accounts or provisions, not your salary.
What remains is your Gross Salary — Basic + HRA + Special Allowance.
Subtract Employee PF + Professional Tax — deductions from your side.
What's left is your monthly take-home — the amount credited to your bank account.
Note: This calculator does not account for income tax (TDS), which further reduces your in-hand if your annual income is above ₹7 lakhs. TDS is deducted by the employer on a monthly basis based on your tax regime and declarations. A separate income tax calculator will be added to CalcBazaar soon.