Salary-Calculator.in

Income tax calculator: old vs new regime

Compare your income tax under the old and new regimes for FY 2025-26, with the Rs. 12 lakh rebate, standard deduction, and old-regime deductions applied.

Updated 5 July 2026

This calculator compares your income tax under the old and new regimes for FY 2025-26 (assessment year 2026-27), the year most people are filing for now, and flags the lower one. Enter your income and your deductions; it applies the correct slabs, the Rs. 75,000 or Rs. 50,000 standard deduction, the Section 87A rebate with its marginal relief, surcharge, and the 4% cess to each regime, and shows them side by side. The slabs are unchanged for FY 2026-27, so the result holds for the current year too. It is a guide for a salaried resident individual on ordinary income; the method and a worked example follow.

Calculator

Gross salary income for the year, before deductions.
Raises the old-regime basic exemption for seniors.
Old-regime deductions (these do not change the new-regime tax)
PPF, EPF, ELSS, LIC, and the like. Max Rs. 1,50,000.
Additional NPS. Max Rs. 50,000.
Self and parents. Max Rs. 1,00,000.
Self-occupied house. Max Rs. 2,00,000.
The exempt part under Section 10(13A). Work it out with the HRA article.
As deducted by the state. Max Rs. 2,500.

Tax comparison
ItemNew regimeOld regime

Deductions reduce only the old-regime tax; the new regime already prices them into its lower rates and higher standard deduction. Special-rate income such as capital gains is taxed separately and is not included here.

New regime against old regime

Total tax under each regime for your figures. The lower bar, in teal, is the regime you would choose.

What the calculator does

It takes your gross annual income, your age band, and your old-regime deductions, and computes the tax twice: once under the new regime, which the income tax for government employees article sets out in full, and once under the old regime. It then names the lower and the yearly difference.

The two regimes are built on opposite principles. The new regime is the default. It has wider, lower slabs, a Rs. 75,000 standard deduction, and a Section 87A rebate that makes tax nil up to Rs. 12,00,000 of taxable income, which is a gross salary of Rs. 12,75,000. In return, it allows almost no other deduction. The old regime has narrower, higher slabs and a smaller Rs. 50,000 standard deduction, but it permits the familiar deductions: Section 80C, additional NPS under 80CCD(1B), health insurance under 80D, home-loan interest under Section 24(b), and the HRA exemption under Section 10(13A).

The slabs

The new regime slabs for FY 2025-26 are nil up to Rs. 4 lakh, 5% from Rs. 4 to 8 lakh, 10% from 8 to 12 lakh, 15% from 12 to 16 lakh, 20% from 16 to 20 lakh, 25% from 20 to 24 lakh, and 30% above Rs. 24 lakh, applied to income after the Rs. 75,000 standard deduction. The Section 87A rebate then wipes out the tax where taxable income is Rs. 12 lakh or less, and marginal relief limits the tax for incomes just above that ceiling.

The old regime slabs are nil up to Rs. 2.5 lakh, 5% from 2.5 to 5 lakh, 20% from 5 to 10 lakh, and 30% above Rs. 10 lakh, applied to income after the Rs. 50,000 standard deduction and your deductions. The basic exemption is Rs. 3 lakh for a senior citizen of 60 to 79 and Rs. 5 lakh for a super-senior citizen of 80 or more. The old-regime rebate covers taxable income up to Rs. 5 lakh. On top of the slab tax, both regimes add surcharge on high incomes, above Rs. 50 lakh, and a 4% Health and Education Cess.

Which regime wins, and why

The rule of thumb follows from the design. The new regime gives a large benefit for free: no tax to Rs. 12.75 lakh of salary, and lower rates above it. To beat that under the old regime, your deductions have to be large enough to pull your taxable income far below your gross. As a rough break-even, a salaried person needs total deductions of roughly Rs. 4 to 4.5 lakh, the full Section 80C, the NPS top-up, health insurance, and a substantial HRA exemption or home-loan interest, before the old regime starts to win at middle incomes. Someone with a home loan and rent-free or low deductions almost always does better under the new regime. Enter your real figures above and the calculator settles it rather than the rule of thumb.

A worked example

Take a salaried person below 60 with a gross income of Rs. 15,00,000. Under the new regime, taxable income is Rs. 14,25,000 after the Rs. 75,000 standard deduction. The tax is Rs. 20,000 on the 4-to-8 lakh slab, Rs. 40,000 on the 8-to-12 lakh slab, and Rs. 33,750 on the 12-to-14.25 lakh slab at 15%, a total of Rs. 93,750, plus 4% cess, about Rs. 97,500.

Under the old regime, with the full Rs. 1,50,000 under 80C, Rs. 50,000 of NPS, Rs. 25,000 of health insurance, and Rs. 1,00,000 of HRA exemption, deductions total Rs. 3,25,000, and taxable income is Rs. 15,00,000 minus Rs. 50,000 standard deduction minus Rs. 3,25,000, or Rs. 11,25,000. The tax is Rs. 12,500 on the 2.5-to-5 lakh slab, Rs. 1,00,000 on the 5-to-10 lakh slab, and Rs. 37,500 on the 10-to-11.25 lakh slab, a total of Rs. 1,50,000, plus cess, about Rs. 1,56,000. The new regime wins by roughly Rs. 58,000 here, because the deductions are not large enough to overcome its lower rates and rebate. A person with a Rs. 2 lakh home-loan interest on top would narrow or reverse that gap, which is exactly what the calculator shows when you enter it.

Switching between the regimes

How you switch depends on whether you have business income. A salaried employee or pensioner with no business or professional income chooses the regime afresh each year, in the income-tax return itself, and can move between the old and new regime freely from one year to the next; no separate form is filed. During the year the same person tells the employer which regime to apply for tax deducted at source, and can still change that choice on the return.

Someone with business or professional income is more constrained. To opt out of the default new regime they must file Form 10-IEA before the return due date under Rule 21AGA, and once they have opted out they can go back to the new regime only once. So enter your figures each year: for a salaried filer the choice is never locked, and the lower regime this year need not bind you next year.

Notes and scope

The calculator is for a salaried resident individual on ordinary income. It does not compute tax on special-rate income such as long-term capital gains under Section 112A or short-term gains under Section 111A, which are taxed at their own rates and are outside the Section 87A rebate, and it does not model the employer’s NPS contribution under Section 80CCD(2) or surcharge marginal relief, which matter mainly at high incomes. It uses the FY 2025-26 figures, unchanged for FY 2026-27. The return for FY 2025-26 is filed under the Income-tax Act, 1961; the Income-tax Act, 2025, effective 1 April 2026, renumbers the same provisions, with the new regime under Section 202 and the rebate under Section 156. The figure is a guide; your final liability is fixed on your return.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which tax regime is better, old or new?
It depends on your deductions. The new regime has lower slab rates, a higher Rs. 75,000 standard deduction, and full rebate up to Rs. 12 lakh taxable income, but it allows almost no other deductions. The old regime has higher rates but permits 80C, NPS, health insurance, home-loan interest, and HRA exemption. If your old-regime deductions are large, the old regime can win; if they are small, the new regime almost always wins. This calculator computes both and tells you which is lower for your figures.
What is the income up to which there is no tax under the new regime?
A salaried person pays no tax on a gross salary up to Rs. 12,75,000 under the new regime: the Rs. 75,000 standard deduction brings taxable income to Rs. 12,00,000, and the Section 87A rebate makes the tax on income up to Rs. 12,00,000 nil. Above that, marginal relief limits the tax for incomes just over the ceiling, and it phases out by about Rs. 12,70,000 of taxable income.
Do the deductions like 80C work under the new regime?
Mostly no. Under the new regime the main allowances that survive are the Rs. 75,000 standard deduction and the employer’s contribution to NPS under Section 80CCD(2). Section 80C, 80CCD(1B), 80D, home-loan interest on a self-occupied house, and HRA exemption apply only under the old regime, which is why entering them here changes the old-regime tax but not the new-regime tax.
Can I switch between the old and new regime every year?
Yes, if you have only salary or pension income. You choose the regime in your return each year and can switch freely between them. Someone with business or professional income must file Form 10-IEA to leave the new regime, and can return to it only once.
Which financial year does this calculator use?
It uses the slabs, standard deduction, rebate, surcharge, and cess for FY 2025-26 (assessment year 2026-27), the return being filed in 2026. Budget 2026 made no change to any of these, so the same figures apply to FY 2026-27. Returns for FY 2025-26 are filed under the Income-tax Act, 1961; the Income-tax Act, 2025 governs the year from 1 April 2026.
Does the calculator handle capital gains?
No. It computes tax on ordinary salary income only. Special-rate income such as long-term capital gains under Section 112A or short-term gains under Section 111A is taxed at its own rate and is not covered by the Section 87A rebate, so a separate computation is needed for it. This tool is for the salary component.

External references

References

  1. Finance Act 2025, income-tax slabs, standard deduction, and the Section 87A rebate for the new regime (FY 2025-26).
  2. Income-tax Act, 1961, Sections 87A, 80C, 80CCD, 80D, 24(b), and 10(13A); Income-tax Act, 2025 (Section 202 for the regime, Section 156 for the rebate), effective 1 April 2026.
  3. Central Board of Direct Taxes, surcharge rates and the 4% Health and Education Cess.
  4. Income-tax Act, 1961, Section 115BAC(6) on exercising and withdrawing the regime option; Form 10-IEA prescribed under Rule 21AGA of the Income-tax Rules, 1962, for taxpayers with business or professional income.