Professional Tax slabs across 13 Indian states: 2026 update

An HR head at a Bengaluru-headquartered company with employees in 5 states has to file Professional Tax in 5 different ways. Different slabs. Different due dates. Different portals. Different forms. Different annual caps. It's the same tax. It's just collected by different state governments.

This piece is the complete reference for Professional Tax across the 13 Indian states that levy it, current for FY 2026-27. It starts with a brief explanation of why PT works this way (the federalism part is genuinely interesting), summarises the pattern across states, names the 2026 changes worth knowing, then runs through each state's slabs, due date, and the operational quirks that catch payroll teams.

If you only need to look up your state's slab, skip to the state-by-state section. If you handle multi-state PT and need the full picture, read through.

Why PT is fragmented (the federalism story)

Professional Tax is a state subject under the Indian Constitution. Article 276 allows states to levy a tax on professions, trades, callings, and employments — capped at ₹2,500 per person per year. The cap is constitutional; states can't cross it. Within that cap, each state decides its own slabs, its own collection cadence, and its own administration.

This is why you have 13 different PT regimes in 2026 — and why 10+ Indian states don't have PT at all. Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand have chosen not to use this constitutional power. Most union territories also don't levy it. Whether your company has any PT obligation depends entirely on which states your employees physically work in.

The states that do levy PT generally do it because the revenue funds local municipalities. The PT collected in Bangalore funds Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike's operating budget; the PT collected in Mumbai funds BMC. It's the closest thing to a local income tax in Indian finance — which is why some states with weaker local government structures have skipped it.

The pattern across all 13 states

Once you've seen the data, four patterns repeat:

All 13 states cap at ₹2,500 annually. This is constitutional. No state can collect more from any one employee in any one financial year. Some states (Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Punjab) effectively cap at ₹2,400 because their slabs are flat — ₹200 × 12 months = ₹2,400. Others go all the way to ₹2,500 through more granular slabs.

Most states are monthly filing. Two aren't. Tamil Nadu and Kerala both use half-yearly filing — TN in April and October, Kerala in August and February. Bihar is annual, paid in September. This is the single biggest cause of late filings for multi-state employers — payroll teams set up monthly reminders and miss the half-yearly cycles.

The split is roughly: flat vs slabbed. Six states (Karnataka, Maharashtra above ₹10k, Telangana above ₹20k, Andhra above ₹20k, Gujarat above ₹12k, Punjab above ₹2.5L annually) effectively flatten to ₹200/month above their exemption threshold. Seven states (Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam, Bihar) use multi-tier slabs that scale with income.

Maharashtra has gender-specific exemptions. Female employees in Maharashtra are exempt from PT up to ₹25,000/month — a much higher threshold than for males. February month has a different deduction (₹300 instead of ₹200) to make the math reach ₹2,500 annually. This is the most India-unique payroll quirk in the system and is the most-missed when companies onboard their first Maharashtra employee.

What changed in 2026 (and what didn't)

The PT regime is more stable than other parts of Indian payroll — there's no FY 2026-27 union budget tinkering possible because it's a state subject. But individual states do revise slabs periodically. Three changes worth knowing as of mid-2026:

• Karnataka raised its exemption threshold from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 (effective FY 2023-24, still current). Many payroll teams haven't updated their systems and are still deducting from employees earning ₹15,001-₹25,000 who should now be exempt.
• Punjab introduced PT in 2018 via the Punjab State Development Tax Act, 2018. It's the newest PT regime. Single flat slab — ₹200/month for anyone earning above ₹2,50,000/year. Companies that expanded into Punjab post-2018 sometimes still treat it as a no-PT state.
• Maharashtra periodically revisits the gender-specific exemption, but as of FY 2026-27 it remains. Female employees up to ₹25,000/month — exempt. Worth checking annually in case it changes.

Outside these three, no major slab revisions in the last 2 fiscal years. The system is settled — which is good news for compliance teams, since you can build payroll automation around it without worrying about every quarterly union budget.

At-a-glance summary table

Before the detailed state cards, here's the entire system in one table. All amounts are in ₹ per month unless otherwise stated:

Now the detailed state-by-state breakdown.

State-by-state reference · FY 2026-27

What this means for multi-state employers

If your company has employees in 3+ PT-having states, three things follow:

You're filing in three different cadences. Most-monthly, but with at least one half-yearly (Tamil Nadu or Kerala) and potentially an annual (Bihar) mixed in. The compliance calendar matters more than you think — missing a half-yearly Tamil Nadu filing in October compounds with the half-yearly missed in April, which adds up to a year's PT plus interest and penalties.

You need to know which state each employee's PT applies to. This isn't about where the company is headquartered. It's about where each individual employee physically works. A remote employee living in Hyderabad working for a Bengaluru company pays Telangana PT, not Karnataka PT. The state of employment is the state of the work location, not the company's registered office.

You need separate PT registrations in each state. Each state's Commercial Taxes department needs its own Professional Tax registration (PTRC for the employer, PTEC for individuals if applicable). Companies sometimes try to file under their HQ state's registration for all states' employees. This is non-compliant — the state where the employee works is the state where the PT must be deposited, by their employer's registered entity in that state.

One observation on remote work

Post-2020, remote work created a structural complication for PT. An employee living in Bengaluru and working remotely for a Mumbai-headquartered company — which state's PT applies?

The answer is currently: the state of physical work location, which for a remote employee is their state of residence. This means a Mumbai company with a fully remote engineering team in Bengaluru now has Karnataka PT obligations on those employees — even though the company has no Karnataka office.

The compliance approach is the same as for branch offices: register PT in every state where you have employees physically working. The administrative burden grows linearly with state count. This is a real cost of distributed teams that most companies underestimate when they go remote-first.

The states that don't have PT

If your employees only work in these states, you have zero PT obligation:

Delhi · Uttar Pradesh · Rajasthan · Haryana · Goa · Himachal Pradesh · Jammu & Kashmir · Ladakh · Arunachal Pradesh · Uttarakhand

Plus most Union Territories (Chandigarh, Puducherry has a separate regime, Andaman, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep — none have PT).

If your team is fully concentrated in any combination of these, you can stop reading. Just handle PF, ESI, and TDS like everyone else. The state Commercial Taxes departments in these states will never come asking.

If you have any employees outside this list — even one in Bangalore or Mumbai or Chennai or Hyderabad — you're in the 13-state world. Read this article again, bookmark the calculator, and set up the right reminders.

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All slabs and due dates current for FY 2026-27 (April 2026 to March 2027). State governments revise slabs periodically; verify against the relevant state's Commercial Taxes / Excise & Taxation portal before filing. Not legal advice — for your specific situation, consult your CA or tax advisor.

Last updated: 26 May 2026. We re-review this article quarterly.