State compliance · verified August 2026
Professional tax in Karnataka
The bands in force in August 2026, what they cost across a year, and the one distinction that makes most published tables wrong. On ₹25,000 a month, Karnataka takes ₹200 per month, or ₹2,500 for the year. Work it out for your own salary.
The slabs
| Monthly salary | Tax per month | February | Total for the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to ₹24,999 | Nil | — | Nil |
| ₹25,000 and above | ₹200 | ₹300 | ₹2,500 |
The top band works out to exactly ₹2,500 a year, which is the ceiling Article 276(2) of the Constitution puts on professional tax. No state may charge a rupee more, whatever anyone earns.
The February figure is new. The Karnataka Amendment Act 2025 received assent on 10 April 2025 and took effect from 1 April 2025, raising the annual maximum from Rs 2,400 to Rs 2,500 by adding Rs 100 to February alone. Tables that still show a flat Rs 200 for all twelve months are a year out of date.
Work out your own figure
The bands above, applied to a salary you choose. Everything here is computed from the same reviewed table the rest of this page is, so the calculator and the article cannot disagree. Tell it when the employee joined and it will work out whether they are on roll for February, which is the month Karnataka charges a different amount.
Deduct every month
₹200
Karnataka collects monthly.
Cost for the full year
₹2,500
Exactly the ₹2,500 constitutional maximum. No state may charge more.
That is the ₹25,000 and above band of the Karnataka table, read on monthly salary. See all 2 bands above
Karnataka looks the band up on monthly salary and collects over the same period, so the ₹200 above is both the band figure and the amount deducted.
February is different. Karnataka takes ₹300 in February instead of ₹200, so the year lands on ₹2,500 exactly. That is ₹200 for 11 months and ₹300 for one, not ₹200 12 times over. Payroll that deducts a flat ₹200 all year under collects by ₹100, and the shortfall is the employer's to make good.
The February figure is new. The Karnataka Amendment Act 2025 received assent on 10 April 2025 and took effect from 1 April 2025, raising the annual maximum from Rs 2,400 to Rs 2,500 by adding Rs 100 to February alone. Tables that still show a flat Rs 200 for all twelve months are a year out of date.
Monthly or annual: the distinction that ruins most tables
Karnataka looks your band up on your monthly salary, and the money is handed over every month. Both halves of the rule use the same period, which makes this one of the easier states to get right.
Two different periods are at work in every professional tax rule and they are genuinely independent: the period the band threshold is measured over, and the period the money is handed over in. All four combinations exist across India. Madhya Pradesh reads an annual band and collects monthly; Kerala does both half-yearly; Bihar does both annually; Andhra Pradesh does both monthly. That is why one careless column heading produces an answer that is out by a factor of twelve and still looks entirely reasonable, and it is how at least one widely syndicated table ends up showing a state charging ₹2,500 per month, twelve times the maximum the Constitution allows for the whole year.
Worked example
An employee in Karnataka on ₹25,000 a month.
| Monthly salary | ₹25,000 |
|---|---|
| Salary the band is read on (monthly) | ₹25,000 |
| Tax per month | ₹200 |
| Topped-up instalment (February) | ₹300 |
| Instalments in the year | 12 |
| Total for the financial year | ₹2,500 |
The February figure replaces an ordinary instalment; it is not added on top of a full set of them. Getting that backwards is the single most common bug in payroll code that handles the top-up rule at all, and it produces a year that overshoots by exactly one ordinary instalment.
Who deducts it, and what goes wrong
The employee bears professional tax; the employer deducts it from salary and deposits it. The duty to register, deduct, deposit every monthand file the return sits on the person paying the salary, which means an under-deduction becomes the employer's arrears with interest and penalty, recovered from the business rather than from the staff. The employee's side of it is simple: Section 16(iii) of the Income Tax Act allows the professional tax actually paid to be deducted from salary income, so it is not taxed twice.
In practice the costly mistake is almost never evasion. It is a stale table. Slabs move with state budgets, and payroll quietly running last year's figures accumulates a shortfall across every employee, every month, until somebody checks. Assam raised its exemption in April 2025, Karnataka added its February top-up in the same month, Maharashtra moved the threshold for women in 2023. Each of those turned a correct payroll into an incorrect one on a single date, without any error message.
Questions people ask
How much professional tax is deducted in Karnataka?
It depends on the band your salary falls in. On ₹25,000 a month, Karnataka charges ₹200 per month, which is ₹2,500 across the financial year, because one instalment in February is topped up to ₹300. The full band table is on this page. The top band works out to exactly ₹2,500 a year, which is the ceiling Article 276(2) of the Constitution puts on professional tax. No state may charge a rupee more, whatever anyone earns.
Is the Karnataka professional tax slab monthly or annual?
Karnataka looks your band up on your monthly salary, and the money is handed over every month. Both halves of the rule use the same period, which makes this one of the easier states to get right.
Who pays professional tax in Karnataka, the employer or the employee?
The employee bears it and the employer deducts it. Section 16(iii) of the Income Tax Act then lets the employee deduct the professional tax actually paid from salary income, so it is not taxed twice. The employer's duty is to register, deduct correctly, deposit every month and file the return; a failure to deduct does not move the liability onto the employee, it stays with the employer along with the interest and penalty.
What is the professional tax exemption limit in Karnataka?
Nothing is payable up to ₹24,999 a month. Above that the first paying band begins at ₹25,000. Note the odd rupee: bands are inclusive of their upper bound, so an employee sitting exactly on ₹24,999 pays nothing and one rupee more moves them into the next band.
What is the maximum professional tax anyone can be charged?
₹2,500 per person per financial year, anywhere in India. Article 276(2) of the Constitution fixes that ceiling and no state legislature can raise it. In Karnataka the top band comes to ₹2,500 a year. Any table showing a figure above ₹2,500 a year is a misprint, and the usual cause is an annual amount printed under a column headed "per month".
What happens if an employer does not deduct professional tax in Karnataka?
The liability stays with the employer. State professional tax Acts put the duty to register, deduct and deposit on the person paying the salary, so an under-deduction becomes the employer's arrears together with interest and a penalty, and it is recovered from the business rather than from the staff. In practice the expensive version is not deliberate evasion but a stale slab table: the rates move with state budgets, and payroll that quietly runs last year's figures accumulates a shortfall across every employee, every month, until somebody checks.
Other states
19 states and union territories are covered, and 3 that levy the tax are deliberately not, because no published slab for them could be cross-checked to the standard the rest of this table meets.
All states, side by side · Professional tax calculator · All free tools
Slabs verified August 2026 and stated as in force on that date. Professional tax rates are set by state legislatures and move with state budgets, so treat this as a dated reference and confirm against the Karnataka notification before you rely on it for a payroll run. Every figure on this page, including those in the worked example and the answers below the table, is computed from the same reviewed band data rather than typed separately, so the page and the calculator cannot disagree. This is general information, not tax advice. If you believe anything here is wrong, write to support@shiftelio.com and we will correct it.