CTC to In-Hand Salary: How Much of Your CTC You Actually Take Home
By the QuickYield Team · Published September 9, 2026 · 6 min read
How much of your CTC do you actually take home? On a ₹15,00,000 CTC (with basic at 45% of CTC), the monthly in-hand works out to roughly ₹1,04,228 — meaning your annual take-home (₹12,50,736) is about 83% of your CTC, not the full amount, once employer PF, employee PF, income tax, and professional tax are all removed.
Why CTC and in-hand pay are two different numbers
CTC (Cost to Company) includes money that never actually reaches your bank account — the employer’s PF contribution most notably, which is a real cost to your employer but not cash you receive monthly. From there, your own PF contribution, income tax, and professional tax are deducted before what’s left becomes your in-hand salary. The gap between the CTC number on your offer letter and your monthly bank credit is entirely explained by these four deductions, in this order.
The deduction chain, step by step
On a ₹15,00,000 CTC, with basic salary at 45% of CTC:
- Basic salary: ₹6,75,000/year (45% of CTC)
- Employer PF (12% of basic, part of CTC but not paid to you): ₹81,000
- Gross salary (CTC minus employer PF): ₹14,19,000
- Employee PF (12% of basic, deducted from gross): ₹81,000
- Income tax + cess (new regime, after standard deduction): ₹84,864
- Professional tax (₹200/month): ₹2,400
- Annual take-home: ₹12,50,736 (₹1,04,228/month)
Take-home by CTC level
At the same 45% basic ratio and ₹200/month professional tax:
| Annual CTC | Monthly take-home |
|---|---|
| ₹8,00,000 | ₹59,267 |
| ₹12,00,000 | ₹89,000 |
| ₹15,00,000 | ₹1,04,228 |
| ₹20,00,000 | ₹1,34,305 |
| ₹30,00,000 | ₹1,87,362 |
Notice take-home doesn’t scale in exact proportion to CTC — it grows a bit slower, because higher CTC means higher tax slabs taking a larger share. This is worth knowing when comparing two offers with different CTCs, since the percentage gap in take-home pay is usually somewhat smaller than the percentage gap in the headline CTC numbers.
Run your own CTC, basic percentage, and professional tax through our In-hand Salary Calculator for your exact monthly take-home.
Frequently asked questions
›Why does a higher basic salary percentage reduce my take-home?
A higher basic percentage means more of your CTC goes into mandatory PF contributions (both employee and employer share are calculated on basic), leaving less as directly payable cash — even though the PF itself is still your money, just locked into a retirement account rather than your monthly bank credit.
›Is employer PF really part of my CTC?
Yes — CTC represents the employer’s total cost of employing you, which includes their PF contribution even though that money goes into your EPF account rather than your monthly salary account.
›Does this in-hand calculation account for old-regime deductions?
No — this uses new-regime tax slabs since that’s the default regime; if you’re opting for the old regime with 80C, HRA, and other deductions, your actual take-home could differ meaningfully depending on your specific deductions.
›Why do two offers with the same CTC sometimes have different take-home pay?
Differences in the basic salary percentage, variable pay structure, and other CTC components (like insurance or perks) between two offers can produce meaningfully different in-hand pay even at an identical headline CTC.
Try it yourself
Open the In-hand Salary Calculator →
Continue reading
This article is for general information only and isn’t financial, tax, or legal advice. See our disclaimer.