Take-home Salary

What is Take-home Salary?

Take-home salary is the cash you actually get every month. It is gross salary minus statutory deductions like PF, ESI, professional tax, and TDS, minus voluntary deductions like NPS, group insurance, food card top-up, or salary advance recovery. People confuse take-home with CTC, but CTC includes employer PF, gratuity, and bonus, none of which reach your account. A typical mid-level CTC of ₹15L gives a take-home of around ₹95K to ₹1.05L per month, depending on tax regime and 80C investments. Switching to the new regime usually bumps take-home up by ₹2K to ₹8K per month for most income levels because TDS drops, even though deductions like 80C and HRA are gone.

Formula: Take-home = Gross salary - Employee PF - Professional Tax - TDS - other deductions

Example

Gross ₹1,20,000. PF ₹1,800, PT ₹200, TDS ₹15,000, group insurance ₹500. Take-home = 1,20,000 - 1,800 - 200 - 15,000 - 500 = ₹1,02,500.

How Take-home Salary is used

Show projected take-home in offer letters and on the candidate dashboard. Run a tax regime comparison so employees pick the better option at the start of the year.

Take-home Salary FAQs

How is take-home different from CTC?

CTC includes employer PF, gratuity, and other costs. Take-home is only the cash that reaches your bank.

Why is my take-home less in April?

TDS for the year often gets front-loaded if you are above the basic exemption, or HR has not factored in 80C declarations yet.

Does new regime give higher take-home?

Usually yes, if you do not invest much in 80C, 80D, or pay high rent.