Professional tax in India, state by state.

What is professional tax?

Professional tax (PT) is a state-level tax on income from salary, trade or profession — not to be confused with income tax, which is levied by the central government. Each state that levies PT sets its own slabs and collection mechanism under its own Professional Tax Act.

Not every state levies it. Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, for instance, don't have professional tax at all, while Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh do. If your business has employees or branches in more than one state, you need to check applicability state by state — assuming uniformity is a common payroll mistake.

Who pays professional tax?

Two categories of people pay PT:

• Salaried employees — the employer deducts PT from salary every month (like TDS) and deposits it with the state government on the employee's behalf.
• Self-employed professionals — doctors, Chartered Accountants, consultants, traders and other professionals covered under a state's PT law register themselves and pay directly, usually annually or half-yearly.

For employers, this means PT is a statutory payroll deduction that has to be computed correctly per employee, per state, every month.

State-wise professional tax slabs

Slabs are typically based on monthly (or in some states, half-yearly) gross salary. The figures below are commonly applied slabs as a reference point — verify the current slab on your state's PT portal before filing, since states revise rates by notification.

Every state's PT is capped at ₹2,500 per person per year under Article 276 of the Constitution — states structure their monthly slabs to land at or just under this ceiling. Rates and slab boundaries change by state notification, so treat the table as a starting point, not a filing reference.

Due dates & returns

PT due dates and return frequency vary by state — some require monthly payment with an annual return (Maharashtra), others are half-yearly (Tamil Nadu), and a few are annual for lower-slab employees. Employers typically need a Professional Tax Registration Certificate (PTRC) to deduct and deposit PT for employees, and a separate Enrolment Certificate (PTEC) for the business entity itself. Because the calendar differs by state, cross-check your specific state's PT department website rather than applying one state's due date to another.

How payroll software handles PT automatically

Doing this by hand across multiple states — tracking each state's slabs, applying the right monthly deduction per employee, and remembering which states don't levy PT at all — is exactly the kind of statutory detail that's easy to get wrong in a spreadsheet. TatvaBooks payroll computes professional tax automatically per employee based on their work state and salary, alongside PF, ESI, TDS and LWF, so the deduction is correct on every payslip without manual slab lookups.

Payroll on TatvaBooks starts on the Growth plan (₹1,099/month, up to 25 employees). See the payroll software for India page for the full statutory coverage.

Frequently asked questions