Professional tax is a state tax on salary, capped at ₹2,500 a person a year.

It is the top monthly slab of professional tax in most states that charge it: a flat ₹200 the employer deducts from salary and pays to the state, not a percentage of pay. Karnataka charges it on monthly salary of ₹25,000 or more, Maharashtra above ₹10,000 for men and above ₹25,000 for women, Telangana above ₹20,000 and Gujarat above ₹12,000. Twelve months of ₹200 is ₹2,400, just under the ₹2,500 yearly cap, so Karnataka and Maharashtra take ₹300 in February to make the year ₹2,500; Gujarat and Telangana stay at ₹200 every month. West Bengal's top line is ₹208 from 1 Oct 2026, so check the state before copying a ₹200 rule across. On a payslip it appears as PT or Prof. Tax under deductions. Fifteen states and union territories levy no professional tax on salaries, among them Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and Odisha from 1 Apr 2026, so staff there carry no PT line at all.

It depends on the state, because each state's Act lists its own exemptions; there is no national list. The exemption most payrolls meet is the nil band: Karnataka charges nothing below ₹25,000 a month, Gujarat nothing up to ₹12,000 and West Bengal nothing up to ₹20,000 from 1 Oct 2026. Maharashtra exempts women earning up to ₹25,000 a month, and its 2023 amendment widened the exemption for persons with benchmark disability. Fifteen states and union territories levy no professional tax on salaries, among them Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and Odisha from 1 Apr 2026, so nobody working there pays it. State Acts also commonly exempt categories such as members of the armed forces, some senior citizens and parents of children with disabilities; read the exemption section of the Act where the person works, record the reason and the supporting document on the employee's record, and set their PT to nil only from the month the document is on file.

A state tax of at most ₹2,500 a person a year, deducted by the employer from salary on the slab of the state where the person works. Fifteen states and union territories levy no professional tax on salaries, among them Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and Odisha from 1 Apr 2026. Karnataka charges nothing below ₹25,000 a month. In Chennai almost every salaried person pays, because the slab is read on six months' income and only half-yearly income up to ₹21,000 is free of it. So a Bengaluru, Chennai and Gurugram team of ten can carry three different PT lines for the same salary.

A PT slab is a band of monthly salary with a fixed tax against it, not a percentage. Payroll finds the band the month's salary falls in and deducts that flat amount. In Karnataka a salary of ₹24,999 is in the nil band and pays ₹0, while ₹25,000 is in the top band and pays ₹200. The slab is the state's where the person works, so two people on the same salary in different states can pay different PT.

There is no single national rate: each state sets its own slabs, within the Constitution's cap of ₹2,500 a person a year. At the top slab, as checked on 6 Oct 2026, it is ₹200 a month in Karnataka (₹300 in February), ₹200 in Maharashtra (₹300 in February), ₹200 in Telangana, ₹200 in Gujarat and ₹208 in West Bengal from 1 Oct 2026. Fifteen states and union territories levy no professional tax on salaries, among them Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and Odisha from 1 Apr 2026.

Nothing on monthly salary below ₹25,000, and ₹200 a month on ₹25,000 or more, with ₹300 in February. The ₹25,000 threshold applies from 1 Apr 2023; the ₹300 February figure from 1 Apr 2025. A full year at the top slab is ₹2,500, which is the constitutional cap.

For men: nil up to ₹7,500 a month, ₹175 from ₹7,501 to ₹10,000, and ₹200 above that. For women: nil up to ₹25,000 a month (from 1 Apr 2023) and ₹200 above it. On the ₹200 slab February is ₹300, so the year is ₹2,500. These slabs were read from secondary reproductions of the state schedule and reviewed 6 Oct 2026; check the Maharashtra GST Department's schedule page before the first Pune or Mumbai payroll.

From 1 Oct 2026, salary and wage earners pay on new slabs: nil up to ₹20,000 a month, rising to ₹208 above ₹1,00,000. October 2026 is the first payroll under them. Staff on ₹10,001 to ₹20,000 stop paying; everyone else up to ₹1,00,000 pays less; only those above ₹1,00,000 pay more. The slabs were read from secondary reproductions of the notification and reviewed 6 Oct 2026.

It depends on the salary for that month, and most payrolls read the slab on the salary actually earned. In Karnataka, someone on ₹26,000 who loses 3 of 30 days earns ₹23,400, below the ₹25,000 threshold, so that month's PT is ₹0. No department ruling settles this, so write the rule into the payroll policy and apply it every month.

Registration is for an employer that deducts PT from staff salaries. Enrolment is for a person or business that owes PT in its own right, such as the company itself, a partner or a self-employed professional. In states that tax companies too (Karnataka, Telangana and Maharashtra among them), a company with staff usually holds both. Telangana's Act sets this out in s.6(1) and s.6(2).

The state where the person actually works, so Maharashtra's slab, not Karnataka's. That means a PT registration in Maharashtra for that one person before their first payslip there; deducting Karnataka PT instead is the common mistake.

Fifteen states and union territories levy none on salaries: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Delhi, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Odisha (from 1 Apr 2026), Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Odisha stopped from 1 Apr 2026.