Professional tax in Karnataka
₹200 a month from a ₹25,000 salary, ₹300 in February — after two amendments most slab tables online still miss.
Karnataka professional tax slab
As of 1 April 2025 · ₹25,000 threshold from 1 April 2023 (Karnataka Act 14 of 2023); ₹300 for February from 1 April 2025 (Karnataka Act 33 of 2025) · last checked 1 November 2026
You pay ₹200 per month at a salary of ₹50,000, and ₹300 in February — ₹2,500 a year.
| Monthly salary | Professional tax | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Below ₹25,000 | Nil | ₹0 |
| ₹25,000 and above | ₹200 a month; ₹300 in February | ₹2,500 |
Source: Karnataka Tax on Professions, Trades, Callings and Employments Act, 1976. New to professional tax? What it is and why every State is different.
How much professional tax is deducted from salary in Karnataka?
At ₹25,000 a month or more, your employer deducts ₹200 every month and ₹300 in February — ₹2,500 a year, the constitutional maximum. Below ₹25,000 you pay nothing, and from age 60 you are exempt.
Key takeaways
- →Nil below ₹25,000 a month; ₹200 a month from ₹25,000, ₹300 in February.
- →The threshold was ₹15,000 until March 2023 — a deduction on a ₹15,000–₹25,000 salary today is an error.
- →Seniors are exempt from 60, five years earlier than in Maharashtra or Gujarat.
- →A year with 120 days of employment or fewer carries no professional tax.
Professional tax calculator
Your State and monthly salary in — what is deducted, when, and whether you are exempt
Where you work, not where your company is registered.
The gross on your payslip, before any deductions.
Exemptions differ by State. The result says whether yours is recognised.
Deducted from your salary each month
₹200
₹2,500 a year in Karnataka. Your slab: ₹25,000 and above (monthly salary).
How it comes out of your pay
- Every month except February₹200
- February₹300
- Total for the year₹2,500
When your employer must pay it
A monthly statement, with proof of payment, within 20 days of the end of each month (s.6A), and an annual return within 60 days of the end of the year (s.6).
Where this comes from
Karnataka Tax on Professions, Trades, Callings and Employments Act, 1976. Slabs as of 2025-04-01. Full Karnataka rules
Show the working
- 1Gross monthly salary₹50,000
- 2Slab (Karnataka, as of 2025-04-01)₹25,000 and above
- 3Tax for the month₹200
- 4Every month except February₹200
- 5February₹300
- 6Total for the year₹2,500
Two amendments that changed the Karnataka slab
Karnataka Act 14 of 2023 raised the starting point from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 a month. Someone on ₹20,000, who had paid ₹2,400 a year, has paid nothing since April 2023.
Karnataka Act 33 of 2025 then set February at ₹300 from 1 April 2025. A flat ₹200 had come to ₹2,400, ₹100 short of the ₹2,500 a State may collect; the extra ₹100 in February closes that gap. It is not a payroll error.
If you check the law yourself, note that the consolidated Act on the department's site still shows ₹15,000. The current position comes from the base Act read with the 2023 and 2025 amending Acts.
Contract staff, job changes and short stints
If a manpower agency places you with a client, the Act puts the duty to deduct on the client receiving the service (s.10(3)(b)). Only one payslip should show the line.
Changing jobs does not double the tax: the ₹2,500 ceiling is per person per year. If all your employment in a year adds up to 120 days or fewer — say, a layoff early in the year — no tax is payable for that year (s.3(2)).
Karnataka professional tax due dates, interest and penalty
Employers have twenty days after each month to file and pay, and sixty days after the year for the annual return. Enrolled individuals pay once, before 30 April.
| Karnataka rule | |
|---|---|
| Employer deducting from salary | A monthly statement, with proof of payment, within 20 days of the end of each month (s.6A), and an annual return within 60 days of the end of the year (s.6). |
| Self-employed or enrolled person | Before 30 April of the year if enrolled before it began; within one month of enrolment if enrolled during the year (s.10(2)). For 2026-27 only, the date was extended to 5 May 2026. |
| Interest on late payment | Simple interest at 1.5% of the tax due for each month or part of a month it stays unpaid (s.11(2), raised from 1.25% by Act 14 of 2023). The employer owes it whether or not it actually deducted the tax from your salary (s.4). |
| Penalty | A penalty equal to 10% of the tax due, on top of interest (s.12, as amended by Act 14 of 2023). |
What paying late costs, in rupees
Act 14 of 2023 raised interest from 1.25% to 1.5% a month and replaced a penalty of "up to 50%" with a flat 10% — several sites still quote the old figures. None of this can be recovered from your salary.
| Paid late by | Interest | Penalty | Total extra |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months | ₹113 | ₹250 | ₹363 |
| 12 months | ₹450 | ₹250 | ₹700 |
Karnataka professional tax registration and payment portal
Since April 2026, exempt people such as seniors can upload proof once on E-Prerana and stop filing returns.
Who is exempt from professional tax in Karnataka
Karnataka's list is wide, with the lowest senior age of the States here. One catch: ex-servicemen are exempt only if not salaried, so one in a private-sector job pays.
| Who | What the law says | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Senior citizens | Individuals who have attained the age of 60 pay no professional tax. | s.3(2) first proviso |
| Short employment in the year | No tax for a year in which the period of employment does not exceed 120 days. | s.3(2) third proviso |
| Persons with disability | Physically challenged individuals with total permanent disability of not less than 40% (certificate from the Head of Orthopaedics, Government Civil Hospital), and salary earners who are blind or deaf and dumb. | s.29; Notification FD 09 CPT 2023 dated 13 July 2023, items 3 and 6 |
| Armed forces and central para-military forces | Members of the Armed Forces under the Army, Navy and Air Force Acts, and Central Para-Military Force personnel. | s.29; Notification FD 09 CPT 2023, items 10 and 13 |
| Parent of a single child who has undergone sterilisation | With a certificate from the District Surgeon, Government Civil Hospital. | s.29; Notification FD 09 CPT 2023, item 4 |
| Foreign technicians | Where the appointment is approved by the Government of India for income-tax exemption, for up to two years from joining. | s.29; Notification FD 09 CPT 2023, item 7 |
Karnataka professional tax: two worked examples
1. A fresher in Mysuru on ₹22,000 a month
Below ₹25,000, so no professional tax. Before April 2023 the same salary cost ₹200 a month.
2. A software engineer in Bengaluru on ₹1,20,000 a month
There is only one taxed band, so ₹1,20,000 pays exactly what ₹25,000 does: ₹2,500.
| Step | Example 1 | Example 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Gross monthly salary | ₹22,000 | ₹1,20,000 |
| Slab | Below ₹25,000 | ₹25,000 and above |
| Deducted | Nothing | ₹200 every month except february; ₹300 february |
| Professional tax for the year | ₹0 | ₹2,500 |
How Karnataka professional tax shows on your payslip
Look for "Professional Tax" or "PT" beside PF and TDS: ₹200 for eleven months, ₹300 in February. A February line still showing ₹200 means payroll is on a pre-2025 setting. Form 16 shows ₹2,500 for the year.
Karnataka against its neighbours
At ₹50,000 a month Karnataka and Maharashtra take ₹2,500; Telangana takes ₹2,400 but starts at ₹15,001.
What we could not verify for Karnataka
Left out rather than guessed. If any of these matters to you, ask your payroll team or the department.
- Whether the 10% penalty under s.12 is levied automatically or only after a notice of demand: the base section ties it to the date in a demand notice.
Karnataka professional tax: questions people ask
What is the professional tax slab in Karnataka for 2026?
Why is ₹300 professional tax deducted in February in Karnataka?
Is professional tax deducted if my salary is below ₹25,000 in Karnataka?
Are senior citizens exempt from professional tax in Karnataka?
What is the due date for professional tax payment in Karnataka?
What is the penalty for late payment of professional tax in Karnataka?
Related tools
Sources for the figures on this page
Karnataka: slab table (as of 2025-04-01)
Karnataka Act 14 of 2023, Schedule entry 1: "Salary or wage earners whose salary or wage or both, as the case may be, for a month is Rs. 25,000-00 and above | Rs. 200-00 per month"; Karnataka Act 33 of 2025, s.2: "(i) Rs.200-00 per month (except for the month of February); (ii) Rs.300-00 for the month of February", in force from 1 April 2025. Karnataka Act 22 of 2026 amended only s.10 (returns of enrolled persons), not the rates. The consolidated Act on the same site still shows the pre-2023 ₹15,000 threshold and is out of date.
View sourceChecked 2026-11-01
Karnataka: due dates
Karnataka Tax on Professions Act 1976, s.6A(1): statement "within twenty days of the expiry of a month"; s.6(1): annual return "within sixty days of the expiry of the year"; s.10(2)(a): "Before 30th April of a year".
View sourceChecked 2026-11-01
Karnataka: interest and penalty
Karnataka Act 14 of 2023, s.5 ("for the words 'one and a quarter per cent', the words 'one and a half per cent', shall be substituted" in s.11(2)) and s.6 (in s.12, "for the words 'not exceeding fifty percent', the words 'equal to ten percent', shall be substituted").
View sourceChecked 2026-11-01
Karnataka: exemptions
Notification FD 09 CPT 2023 dated 13 July 2023 under s.29. Note: ex-servicemen are exempt only if they are NOT salary or wage earners (item 5), so an ex-serviceman in a salaried job still pays.
View sourceChecked 2026-11-01
Constitutional ceiling on the total professional tax payable by one person in a State, per year
Constitution of India, Article 276(2), as amended by the Constitution (Sixtieth Amendment) Act, 1988. The Statement of Objects and Reasons records that clause (2) previously capped the tax at "two hundred and fifty rupees per annum" and that it was "accordingly proposed to amend clause (2) of article 276 of the Constitution to increase the ceiling of profession tax from two hundred and fifty rupees per annum to two thousand and five hundred rupees per annum", omitting the then-existing proviso as no longer relevant. The levy itself is imposed by each State under Article 276(1) through its own Act, so the slabs differ by State and no national slab table exists.
View sourceChecked 2026-10-14
Written and reviewed by Deepak Middha, Chartered Accountant (ICAI, India) and founder of LayoffNext.
Founder of LayoffNext. Chartered Accountant and finance educator who builds free tools for people navigating layoffs.