State compliance · verified August 2026
Professional tax in Odisha
The bands in force in August 2026, what they cost across a year, and the one distinction that makes most published tables wrong. On ₹15,000 a month, Odisha takes ₹125 per month, or ₹1,500 for the year. Work it out for your own salary.
The slabs
| Annual salary | Tax per month | March | Total for the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to ₹1,60,000 | Nil | — | Nil |
| ₹1,60,001 to ₹3,00,000 | ₹125 | — | ₹1,500 |
| ₹3,00,001 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.
Annual slab, monthly deduction, and a Rs 300 top up in the last month of the financial year so the year lands on Rs 2,500 exactly.
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 March, which is the month Odisha charges a different amount.
Deduct every month
₹125
Odisha collects monthly.
Cost for the full year
₹1,500
₹1,000 below the ₹2,500 constitutional maximum.
That is the ₹1,60,001 to ₹3,00,000 band of the Odisha table, read on annual salary. See all 3 bands above
Odisha looks the band up on annual salary, so ₹15,000 a month was read as ₹1,80,000 a year before the table was consulted. The money then comes out every month. The two periods are different and mixing them up is the most common professional tax error there is.
Annual slab, monthly deduction, and a Rs 300 top up in the last month of the financial year so the year lands on Rs 2,500 exactly.
Monthly or annual: the distinction that ruins most tables
Odisha is one of the mixed states, and this is where published tables go wrong. Your band is looked up on your salary over the whole financial year, but the money comes out every month. Read the slab column as an annual figure and the tax column as a per month figure, or the answer comes out wrong by a factor of twelve.
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 Odisha on ₹15,000 a month.
| Monthly salary | ₹15,000 |
|---|---|
| Salary the band is read on (twelve months) | ₹1,80,000 |
| Tax per month | ₹125 |
| Instalments in the year | 12 |
| Total for the financial year | ₹1,500 |
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 Odisha?
It depends on the band your salary falls in. On ₹15,000 a month, Odisha charges ₹125 per month, which is ₹1,500 across the financial year, because one instalment in March is topped up to ₹125. 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 Odisha professional tax slab monthly or annual?
Odisha is one of the mixed states, and this is where published tables go wrong. Your band is looked up on your salary over the whole financial year, but the money comes out every month. Read the slab column as an annual figure and the tax column as a per month figure, or the answer comes out wrong by a factor of twelve.
Who pays professional tax in Odisha, 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 Odisha?
Nothing is payable up to ₹1,60,000 a year. Above that the first paying band begins at ₹1,60,001. Note the odd rupee: bands are inclusive of their upper bound, so an employee sitting exactly on ₹1,60,000 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 Odisha 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 Odisha?
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 Odisha 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.