Old vs new regime, with your deductions

The new regime is the default; the old one can still win if your deductions are heavy. Enter your real numbers — the tool caps each deduction at its legal limit and shows both regimes side by side.

The rules this tool applies

• New regime (default, s.202): only the ₹75,000 standard deduction (salary) and employer-NPS 80CCD(2) survive; slab tax minus the s.156 rebate (₹60,000 up to ₹12L) with marginal relief, plus 4% cess.
• Old regime: 2.5L/5L/10L slabs, ₹12,500 rebate up to ₹5L — no marginal relief above it (the famous ₹5 lakh cliff) — with your deductions capped at their legal limits: 80C ₹1.5L, 80CCD(1B) ₹50k, 80D up to ₹1L, home-loan interest ₹2L, 80TTA ₹10k.
• Employer NPS (80CCD(2)) is the one big deduction both regimes share — 14% of basic+DA in the new regime (all employers); 14% government / 10% private in the old.
• Switching rules: salaried taxpayers can pick each year; with business income the switch back to old is once-in-a-lifetime — choose with a CA.

Worked example

A salaried person on ₹16,00,000 with ₹1.5L in 80C, ₹50k NPS, ₹25k 80D and ₹2L home-loan interest: old-regime taxable ₹11,25,000 → tax ₹1,56,000; new-regime taxable ₹15,25,000 → tax ₹1,13,100 — new regime still wins by ₹42,900 despite ₹4.25 lakh of deductions. That's the post-2025 reality: the old regime needs very heavy deductions to compete. Run your own numbers above.

Edge cases to know

• The ₹5 lakh cliff: in the old regime, ₹5,00,001 of taxable income costs ≈ ₹13,000 more tax than ₹5,00,000 — there's no marginal relief. The new regime fixed this at its ₹12L line.
• HRA needs its own math — enter your computed exempt amount (least of: actual HRA, rent − 10% of salary, 50%/40% of salary). For tax year 2026-27 the 50% metro list is reported to expand (Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru) — we're verifying before baking it in.
• Above ₹50 lakh taxable income surcharge applies (10%+) — this tool flags it but doesn't compute it yet.
• Freelancers on presumptive: your "income" here is the deemed profit — compute it first with the presumptive calculator.

Related tools

• Presumptive tax calculator — both regimes on deemed income.
• Advance tax scheduler — once you know your tax.

Last verified: 4 September 2026 — standard deductions (₹50k/₹75k, s.19 ITA 2025), all caps, rebate and slab tables cross-checked against the Act's text and post-Budget-2026 coverage · Reviewed with a practising CA's responses (2 September 2026) · Not tax advice.