Income tax calculator: old vs new regime

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 per cent 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

New regime against old regime

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 per cent from Rs. 4 to 8 lakh, 10 per cent from 8 to 12 lakh, 15 per cent from 12 to 16 lakh, 20 per cent from 16 to 20 lakh, 25 per cent from 20 to 24 lakh, and 30 per cent 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 per cent from 2.5 to 5 lakh, 20 per cent from 5 to 10 lakh, and 30 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent, a total of Rs. 93,750, plus 4 per cent 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.

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.

See also

• Income tax for government employees
• House rent allowance
• Dearness allowance
• National Pension System
• Standard deduction
• 7th CPC salary calculator
• Pay matrix
• Take-home salary
• Central government employees in India

External references

• Income Tax Department
• Central Board of Direct Taxes