Guides
The things the number does not explain
A calculator gives you an answer. It cannot tell you why the answer is surprising. These are the explanations — written once, with every figure in them computed at build time from the statutes and data we publish and date, so they correct themselves when we correct those.
Income-tax Act 2025 · in force FY 2026-27 · verified
- When a raise lowers your take-home
Four CTC bands under the new regime where a bigger offer means a smaller monthly credit — the exact edges, computed from the same engine the calculator runs.
- The EPF Scheme 1952 and the EPS 1995 are gone
Three new schemes replaced them in the summer of 2026. Your 12% is untouched — but almost every EPF page in India, including one of the Ministry’s own, now cites an instrument that has been superseded. What changed, what did not, and what to cite instead.
- Your Form 16, line by line
Every other explainer is written for the employer issuing it, and cites sections of an Act repealed on 1 April 2026. This one is written for you: what each part is, how to read it against your payslip, the five things to check, and what the law says when it does not match.
- The NPS exit rules changed in December 2025
Since December 2025 a private-sector subscriber leaving at the normal time must annuitise a fifth of the balance, not two fifths — while the government sector is unchanged. What moved, what did not, and the government page we found still publishing the superseded figures — quoted verbatim, with the date we read it.
- Which cities count as metro for HRA
The list stopped being Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai on 1 April 2026. Rule 279 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 added Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru — a change invisible to anyone checking the Act, because the cities have never been in the Act. What the rule says, what it replaced, what it is worth in your city, and the pages we found still publishing the old four.