What is the difference between CTC, gross, and in-hand salary?

CTC is the total annual cost to the employer, including its EPF contribution and gratuity provision. Gross salary is CTC minus those employer contributions — the amount considered your salary before your own deductions. In-hand (net) salary is gross minus your EPF contribution, professional tax, and income-tax TDS — the money that actually reaches your account. The three step down in that order: CTC is the largest, gross is in the middle, in-hand is what you spend. This tool shows CTC, gross, and in-hand-before-tax; the tax tools handle the final TDS step.

How does the basic-pay percentage affect my salary?

Basic pay is the base on which EPF and gratuity are calculated, so the percentage you set changes the whole split. EPF is 12% of basic for both you and the employer, and gratuity is provisioned as 15/26 of a month’s basic per year. A higher basic (say 50% of CTC) routes more money into EPF and gratuity — more retirement savings, less immediate cash — while a lower basic (40%) leaves more in hand now. Employers usually set basic at 40–50%. The calculator lets you try both to see how the in-hand figure shifts.

What is professional tax and how much is it?

Professional tax is a small tax levied by some state governments on salaried income and professions. It is capped at ₹2,500 per year by the Constitution, and many states levy around ₹200 a month. Some states — such as Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh — do not levy it at all. Because it is state-specific, this calculator lets you enter your state’s annual amount directly (defaulting to the ₹2,500 cap), so the in-hand figure reflects your actual deduction rather than a national average.

Does this calculator include income tax?

No — deliberately. Income-tax TDS depends on your chosen regime (old or new) and the deductions you declare, which is a separate decision with its own tool. This calculator stops at gross salary and in-hand-before-tax, and surfaces the gross figure so you can carry it into the Income Tax Calculator to compare regimes and the TDS Calculator to estimate monthly tax. Splitting it this way keeps each tool accurate rather than burying the regime choice inside a salary estimate. Use the two together for the complete CTC-to-post-tax picture.

Is the salary I enter stored anywhere?

No. The entire calculation runs in JavaScript inside your own browser. Nothing you enter — CTC, basic percentage, or professional tax — is uploaded, logged, or stored on any server. The tool is free, needs no login, and closing the tab clears everything. There is no account and no saved history. The figures are informational and use standard payroll rules; your actual payslip may vary with your employer’s specific structure.

Business

Salary (In-hand & CTC Breakup) Calculator

Turn a job offer’s CTC into real monthly in-hand pay — with EPF, gratuity, and professional tax broken out the way Indian payroll actually does it. Free, in your browser, nothing uploaded.

By the Samastam teamLast updated 2026-06-20Editorial standards

Your package

Annual CTC (₹)

₹

Total annual cost to company from your offer letter.

Basic pay (% of CTC)

Usually 40–50%. Basic drives EPF and gratuity, so it changes your in-hand.

EPF applies (provident fund deducted)

Professional tax (₹ per year)

₹

Capped at ₹2,500/year. Some states (Delhi, Haryana) levy none — set to 0.

Your in-hand pay

Enter your annual CTC on the left. Your monthly and annual in-hand pay, with every component, appear here as you type.

A salary calculator converts an annual CTC (cost to company) into the money that actually reaches your bank account each month. A CTC figure includes amounts the employer sets aside but never pays you — its own EPF contribution and the gratuity it provisions — and from the gross that remains, your EPF share and professional tax are deducted before in-hand pay. Enter your CTC and basic-pay percentage, and this tool shows your monthly and annual in-hand salary alongside every component, so you can see exactly why the take-home is lower than the headline number. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.

What this is and why it matters

CTC — cost to company — is the total annual amount your employer spends on you, and it is almost always higher than what you take home. The gap exists because CTC bundles in costs the employer pays on your behalf but that never appear in your bank account. The two biggest are the employer’s own EPF (Employees’ Provident Fund) contribution, which is 12% of your basic pay, and the gratuity the employer provisions each year — the statutory 15/26 of a month’s basic pay per year of service. Both are part of CTC, both are set aside for your future, and neither is take-home pay. This is the single most common surprise when comparing a job offer’s headline number to the first payslip.

Basic pay is the figure that drives the whole calculation, which is why this tool asks for it as a percentage of CTC. EPF for both you and the employer is 12% of basic, and gratuity provisioning is also a function of basic. Employers typically set basic at 40–50% of CTC. A higher basic means more of your CTC is routed into EPF and gratuity — strengthening retirement savings but lowering immediate cash in hand — while a lower basic does the reverse. Seeing the split makes the trade-off explicit: two offers with the same CTC but different basic structures pay out very different monthly amounts.

From your gross salary — CTC minus the employer’s contributions — two deductions reach your in-hand pay: your own 12% EPF contribution and professional tax, a small state levy capped at ₹2,500 a year in most states. Income-tax TDS is the third deduction, but it depends on your regime and declarations, so this tool surfaces your gross salary for you to carry into the Income Tax and TDS calculators rather than guessing. The result is an honest monthly in-hand figure plus a full component breakdown — the number you can actually budget around, and the detail you need to compare offers or negotiate structure.

How to use this tool

Enter your CTC. Type the total annual cost to company from your offer letter or appraisal. This is the full figure the employer quotes, including its own contributions. The breakdown updates as you type, with nothing submitted anywhere.

Set the basic-pay percentage. Choose what share of CTC is basic pay — commonly 40–50%. Your offer letter usually states this; if unsure, 40% is a reasonable default. Basic drives EPF and gratuity, so this percentage materially changes the split between in-hand cash and retirement savings.

Choose EPF and professional tax. Keep EPF on if your employer deducts provident fund (the norm for salaried roles), or switch it off for roles without EPF. Enter your state’s annual professional tax — ₹2,500 is the common cap; some states levy less or none. These adjust the deductions from gross.

Read your in-hand pay. The breakdown shows monthly and annual in-hand salary, your gross, the employer and employee EPF, the gratuity provision, and professional tax. Carry the gross figure into the Income Tax Calculator and TDS Calculator to see the tax side, and adjust the basic percentage to compare how different salary structures pay out.

Compare two offers side by side. To weigh competing job offers, run each CTC through the calculator in turn and note the monthly in-hand figure rather than the headline CTC. An offer with a higher CTC but a higher basic percentage can pay less in hand than a lower CTC with a leaner basic, because more is routed into EPF and gratuity. Looking at in-hand pay, the EPF accumulation, and the gross you will be taxed on together gives a truer comparison than the CTC numbers alone, and helps you negotiate the structure, not just the total.

Examples and use cases

A ₹12 lakh CTC with 40% basic

A software engineer is offered ₹12,00,000 CTC with basic set at 40% — so annual basic is ₹4,80,000 and monthly basic is ₹40,000. The employer’s EPF (12% of basic) is ₹57,600 a year, and the gratuity provision is about ₹23,077 a year; both are inside CTC but not paid out. Gross salary is therefore about ₹11,19,323. After the employee’s own ₹57,600 EPF and ₹2,500 professional tax, annual in-hand is roughly ₹10,59,223 — about ₹88,268 a month before income-tax TDS. The headline ₹1 lakh-a-month offer pays out meaningfully less.

The same CTC with a higher 50% basic

Take the same ₹12 lakh CTC but with basic at 50% — monthly basic ₹50,000. Now EPF (12% of basic) rises on both sides, and the gratuity provision grows too, so more of the CTC is routed into retirement savings and less reaches cash in hand. The calculator shows the in-hand falling compared with the 40% structure, illustrating why two identical CTCs can pay different monthly amounts — and why a higher basic favours long-term savings over immediate liquidity.

A role without EPF

A consultant on a ₹8,00,000 CTC with no EPF (a contract role) switches the EPF toggle off. With no employer or employee provident-fund contributions, the gross is reduced only by the gratuity provision, and in-hand is gross minus professional tax alone. The in-hand share of CTC is higher than an equivalent EPF role — more immediate cash, but no employer-matched retirement contribution accumulating in the background.

Feeding gross into the tax tools

After finding a gross salary of about ₹11.2 lakh on a ₹12 lakh CTC, the user carries that gross into the Income Tax Calculator to compare the old and new regimes, and into the TDS Calculator to estimate the monthly tax deduction. Because this salary tool stops at gross and in-hand-before-tax, and the tax tools handle the regime-specific tax, the two together give the complete picture from CTC all the way to post-tax take-home.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my in-hand salary so much lower than my CTC?: Because CTC includes amounts the employer sets aside but never pays you. The employer’s own EPF contribution (12% of basic pay) and the gratuity it provisions each year are both counted in CTC but are not take-home. From the gross that remains, your own 12% EPF contribution and professional tax are deducted, and income-tax TDS comes off on top. The result is that a ₹12 lakh CTC commonly pays out closer to ₹88,000 a month than ₹1,00,000 before tax. This calculator shows each component so the gap is fully explained rather than mysterious.
What is the difference between CTC, gross, and in-hand salary?: CTC is the total annual cost to the employer, including its EPF contribution and gratuity provision. Gross salary is CTC minus those employer contributions — the amount considered your salary before your own deductions. In-hand (net) salary is gross minus your EPF contribution, professional tax, and income-tax TDS — the money that actually reaches your account. The three step down in that order: CTC is the largest, gross is in the middle, in-hand is what you spend. This tool shows CTC, gross, and in-hand-before-tax; the tax tools handle the final TDS step.
How does the basic-pay percentage affect my salary?: Basic pay is the base on which EPF and gratuity are calculated, so the percentage you set changes the whole split. EPF is 12% of basic for both you and the employer, and gratuity is provisioned as 15/26 of a month’s basic per year. A higher basic (say 50% of CTC) routes more money into EPF and gratuity — more retirement savings, less immediate cash — while a lower basic (40%) leaves more in hand now. Employers usually set basic at 40–50%. The calculator lets you try both to see how the in-hand figure shifts.
What is professional tax and how much is it?: Professional tax is a small tax levied by some state governments on salaried income and professions. It is capped at ₹2,500 per year by the Constitution, and many states levy around ₹200 a month. Some states — such as Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh — do not levy it at all. Because it is state-specific, this calculator lets you enter your state’s annual amount directly (defaulting to the ₹2,500 cap), so the in-hand figure reflects your actual deduction rather than a national average.
Does this calculator include income tax?: No — deliberately. Income-tax TDS depends on your chosen regime (old or new) and the deductions you declare, which is a separate decision with its own tool. This calculator stops at gross salary and in-hand-before-tax, and surfaces the gross figure so you can carry it into the Income Tax Calculator to compare regimes and the TDS Calculator to estimate monthly tax. Splitting it this way keeps each tool accurate rather than burying the regime choice inside a salary estimate. Use the two together for the complete CTC-to-post-tax picture.
Is the salary I enter stored anywhere?: No. The entire calculation runs in JavaScript inside your own browser. Nothing you enter — CTC, basic percentage, or professional tax — is uploaded, logged, or stored on any server. The tool is free, needs no login, and closing the tab clears everything. There is no account and no saved history. The figures are informational and use standard payroll rules; your actual payslip may vary with your employer’s specific structure.