Income Tax Calculator — Old vs New Regime

It depends entirely on how much you can claim under the old regime. If your combined deductions — 80C, 80D, NPS, home loan interest, HRA — are low, the new regime usually wins because of its wider slabs and full Section 87A rebate up to ₹12L taxable income. If your deductions are high (typically ₹5L+ for salaried incomes in the ₹15L–₹25L band), the old regime can still win. Use the calculator above with your own numbers and check the breakeven figure it shows you.

Yes. Since FY 2023-24, the new regime is the default. If you want to be taxed under the old regime, you must explicitly opt for it — salaried employees do this by declaring it to their employer at the start of the year (and can switch each year while filing ITR), while business/professional taxpayers get only one opportunity to switch back to the old regime.

Salaried individuals and pensioners with no business income can choose either regime every financial year when filing their ITR, regardless of what they declared to their employer for TDS purposes. Individuals with business or professional income can switch from new to old only once in their lifetime — after switching back to new, they cannot return to old again.

Under the new regime, taxable income up to ₹12 L gets a rebate of up to ₹60,000, effectively making tax payable nil. Under the old regime, the limit is ₹5 L with a rebate of up to ₹12,500. Cross either limit by even a small amount and, without marginal relief, your tax could jump by far more than the extra income — which is exactly what marginal relief exists to prevent.

This is the most misunderstood part of the new regime. Without any relief, earning ₹12,10,000 instead of ₹12,00,000 would otherwise mean paying tax on the full ₹12,10,000 slab-wise (around ₹61,500) — a jump of over ₹60,000 for just ₹10,000 of extra income. Marginal relief caps this: your tax can never exceed the amount of income you earned above the ₹12L threshold. Our calculator applies this automatically and flags it whenever it kicks in.

Yes. The new regime does not allow HRA exemption, Section 80C (PF, ELSS, life insurance, PPF), Section 80D (health insurance), home loan interest under Section 24(b), or most other Chapter VI-A deductions. It only allows a flat standard deduction for salaried/pensioner income and a few exceptions like employer's NPS contribution. The old regime allows all of these, which is why it can still be the better choice for taxpayers with significant, genuine deductions.

Yes. Salaried individuals and pensioners get a standard deduction of ₹75,000 in the new regime and ₹50,000 in the old regime. This applies automatically without any proof or declaration. It does not apply to business or professional income under either regime.

Surcharge starts at 10% for taxable income above ₹50L, rising to 15% above ₹1Cr, 25% above ₹2Cr, and 37% above ₹5Cr under the old regime. The new regime caps surcharge at 25% even above ₹5Cr — it never charges the 37% top rate. Marginal relief also applies here, so crossing a surcharge threshold can never cost you more in extra tax than the extra income you earned.