Statutory and compliance
Professional tax: the state deduction on a salary slip
Professional tax is a tax on employment levied by some Indian states and collected by the employer out of the employee's monthly salary. Each state's own schedule fixes what a salary band pays, so the amount differs across state borders and does not exist at all in states that have never levied it. The employer deposits what it collects with that state.
Last reviewed: September 2026
Also called: PT, professional tax, profession tax, P tax
In plain English
Some states charge a small monthly tax for holding a job. The company takes it out of the salary and pays it across to the state government on the employee's behalf.
How it works in detail
Each state writes its own schedule, and that is where the work comes from. A business with a counter in one state and a godown in another deals with two registrations, two schedules and two filing calendars, and the same salary can carry a different deduction on each side of the border. Several states levy nothing at all. What decides the deduction is the schedule for the place where the employee actually works.
Two registrations usually sit behind it. One covers the business itself, and one covers it as a deductor of the tax from salaries. The employer takes the amount off the salary, deposits it with the state and files whatever return the state's rules ask for. Bands, exemption categories and filing frequency all move by state and by year, so confirm yours with a local consultant for every state you operate in.
A worked example
The setup
Say Deepak manages a showroom on INR 26,750 gross a month in a state that levies the tax. His accountant gives him the monthly amount from that state's schedule.
The calculation
The amount here is assumed for the example and is no state's actual schedule. Gross INR 26,750 - professional tax INR 175.00 = INR 26,575.00 for the month. Across a full year that is 12 x INR 175.00 = INR 2,100.00 collected.The result
Deepak sees INR 26,575.00 before any other deduction, with the tax on its own line of the slip. The employer deposits each month's collection against its own registration.
Common mistakes
- Applying the head-office state's schedule to staff at a branch elsewhere. The deduction follows the place of work, so a branch usually needs its own registration and its own figures.
- Collecting the tax and letting it sit in the business account. The money belongs to the state from the moment it leaves the salary, and a late deposit is the employer's liability.
- Assuming there is nothing to do because the last state you traded in levied no such tax. Check the schedule for the state you now operate in before the first payroll runs.
How VTClock handles it
VTClock does not compute professional tax, does not deduct it and files no state return. It gives you the month's attendance and salary figure, and your accountant applies the schedule.
Frequently asked questions
My team works out of two states. Do I deduct the tax twice for one person?
One employee is deducted once, under the schedule of the state where they actually work. Two states matter when you have people in both: each set of employees is covered by its own state's schedule, and the business needs a registration in each state where it employs people. A person transferred mid-year moves onto the new state's schedule from the month the posting changes. Have a local consultant confirm both registrations before payday.
Is the amount deducted from professional tax refundable at the end of the year?
No. It is a tax paid to the state, so nothing comes back the way an excess income-tax deduction does. What it does give the employee is a deduction while their taxable salary is computed for income tax, which is why the figure appears on the salary slip and in the year-end salary statement. The employee does not have to claim it separately if the employer has recorded it correctly.
An employee joined on the eighteenth. Do I deduct the full month's amount?
That depends on the state, and guessing here is expensive. Some schedules attach the liability to the salary paid for the month regardless of the joining date, and some deal with part months differently. The safe order is to ask your consultant how the state you are registered in treats a mid-month joiner, write the answer into your payroll notes, and apply it the same way for every joiner after that.
I have been running payroll for two years without registering. What now?
Go to a consultant in that state before the next payroll runs. Arrears, interest and the process for regularising a late registration are set by the state, and the sooner the gap is disclosed the smaller the tail. Keep the salary records for the whole period ready, because the assessment works from what you actually paid people month by month, and the attendance behind those payments is what supports the figures.
Related terms
- TDS on salaryTDS on salary is income tax that an employer deducts from an employee's monthly pay and deposits with the government on that employee's behalf, under the Income Tax Act, 1961.
- Net salaryNet salary is what is left of a month's earnings after every deduction the employer is required or authorised to make has come off.
- Gross salaryGross salary is the total of everything an employee earns for a month before a single deduction is taken off: the fixed structure of basic pay and allowances, plus whatever was...
- Salary slipA salary slip is the statement an employer gives an employee for one wage period, setting out what was earned, what was deducted and what was paid.
- EPFEPF, the Employees' Provident Fund, is a retirement savings account run for employees under the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.
- Payroll cycleA payroll cycle is the repeating span a business pays for, together with the two dates that close it: the day attendance stops being counted for that span, and the day the money...
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