Salary Breakdown Calculator — CTC to Take-Home (FY 2025-26)

CTC vs Take-home — Where Does Your Money Go?

CTC = Cost To Company — what your employer spends on you. From that, the employer carves out Employer PF (12% of basic), Gratuity (4.81% of basic), and sometimes insurance. The rest is your Gross Salary. From gross, deduct Employee PF (12% of basic) and income tax. What’s left is your net take-home.

Typical Salary Structure

• Basic: 30–50% of CTC. Drives PF, gratuity, HRA. Higher Basic = more retirement savings but lower in-hand.
• HRA: 40–50% of Basic (metro), 30–40% (non-metro). Tax-free up to limits in Old Regime.
• Special Allowance: Fully taxable. The ‘fill-the-gap’ bucket.
• Variable / Bonus: 5–25% of CTC, performance-linked. Often paid quarterly or annually.
• PF (Provident Fund): 12% of Basic from employee + 12% from employer. The employee 12% is locked in EPF/PPF; employer half splits between EPF and EPS (pension).
• Gratuity: 4.81% of Basic (≈ 1 month’s Basic per year), payable on completing 5 years.

Worked Example

How to Optimise Your Structure

• Higher Basic = more PF (forced saving) + bigger HRA cap, but lower in-hand.
• Lower Basic = more in-hand today, less retirement savings.
• Negotiate variable carefully: ₹3 L variable is worth less than ₹3 L fixed (probability-weighted).
• Use NPS Tier 1 (₹50K under 80CCD-1B) to add a separate tax-saving lever in Old Regime.
• Watch out for non-cash CTC inflation: Insurance premiums, ESOPs, etc., often inflate CTC without affecting take-home.