Also check EPF contribution, ESI, and salary TDS (Sec 192).
Professional Tax (PT) is a state-level tax on salaries and professions, levied under Article 276 of the Constitution of India, which also caps it at ₹2,500 per person per annum — no state may charge more, though several charge less. Unlike central taxes, PT is entirely state-specific: the slabs, the periodicity (monthly, half-yearly or annual), and even whether a state levies it at all vary. Roughly 20 states/UTs currently levy PT; several large states — Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand — do not. PT also sits outside the four central Labour Codes that took effect 21 November 2025: those codes restructured central Acts such as EPF and ESI (now under the Code on Social Security, 2020) and the Payment of Bonus Act (now under the Code on Wages, 2019), but Article 276 taxation power — and every state PT Act built on it — was untouched.
Employers deduct PT from employee salaries and remit it under a state-specific registration — commonly split into a Professional Tax Registration Certificate (PTRC, for deducting and remitting on employees’ behalf) and a Professional Tax Enrolment Certificate (PTEC, a one-time registration for the entity or a self-employed professional itself). Maharashtra and Karnataka use a distinctive quirk to hit the ₹2,500 cap exactly with round monthly numbers: ₹200/month for eleven months, ₹300 in February.
Because PT is state legislation, slabs get revised by state budgets fairly often — Maharashtra and Karnataka both raised exemption thresholds in 2023, and Gujarat simplified its slab structure the same year. A PT slab that was correct last year can be wrong this year; that is why this tool marks each state’s verification status and source rather than presenting every figure with equal confidence.
A Pune-based employer runs payroll for a male employee earning ₹30,000/month gross. Maharashtra’s top slab (above ₹10,000/month) is ₹200/month, rising to ₹300 in February.
