Advance Tax Calculator

Advance tax is often described as pay-as-you-earn. Instead of settling everything when you file your return, you pay it in four parts through the year. Salaried people with only a salary rarely think about it, as their employer deducts TDS each month. Freelancers, consultants, traders, landlords and anyone with sizeable interest or capital gains usually must pay it themselves, and many only find out when interest shows up on their return. This page explains who pays, how to divide the amount, and what happens if you miss a date. The figures are for the financial year 2026-27.

Who has to pay

The test is simple:

advance tax due = tax for the year − TDS and TCS

If that balance is ₹10,000 or more, you must pay it in advance. The rule applies to individuals, firms and companies alike.

Freelancers and consultants. Clients may deduct TDS, but this is often less than the final tax.

Business owners. Profits are not taxed at source, so advance tax applies.

Landlords. Rental income with little or no TDS can bring you over the limit.

Investors. Capital gains and interest are the classic surprises. Interest from fixed deposits carries TDS at a low rate, which may not cover tax in a higher slab.

Salaried people with other income. Your employer only accounts for your salary, unless you declare other income to them. Tax on a large gain or rent is left for you to pay.

Exemption. Resident individuals aged 60 or over during the year, with no income from business or profession, do not have to pay advance tax. They can pay any balance as self-assessment tax.

The dates and percentages

The percentages are cumulative. By 15 December, you should have paid a total of 75 percent of the year's advance tax. For 2026-27, the dates fall on 15 June, 15 September and 15 December 2026, and 15 March 2027. Check the date if the 15th falls on a holiday, as tax is payable on the next working day under the general rules.

A worked example

Take a freelancer who expects ₹18 lakh of income in the new regime, with no salary, and clients deducting ₹50,000 of TDS.

Adding cess of 4 percent gives ₹1,66,400. Subtracting TDS of ₹50,000 leaves ₹1,16,400. The instalments are:

• By 15 June: 15% = ₹17,460.
• By 15 September: a total of ₹52,380, so ₹34,920 more.
• By 15 December: a total of ₹87,300, so ₹34,920 more.
• By 15 March: the final ₹29,100.

The rest of the tax, ₹50,000, has already gone in through TDS. The calculator does all of this, and the income tax calculator shows how your slabs apply.

Note that income up to ₹12 lakh in the new regime, for a resident, falls within the rebate, so there is no tax at all, which means no advance tax. Salaried people get a standard deduction on top. Income from certain sources, such as special-rate capital gains, does not get the same treatment, so check if that is part of your income.

Salaried people with other income

Take a salaried person with a total income of ₹25 lakh, who has ₹3 lakh deducted as TDS. Tax on ₹25 lakh less the ₹75,000 standard deduction, in the new regime, comes to ₹3,19,800. The balance of ₹19,800 is above ₹10,000, so advance tax applies.

The simple way to deal with this is to tell your employer about your other income, and ask for extra TDS from your salary. Many employers allow it, and it means you need not make separate payments. Otherwise, pay the balance yourself through the year.

Interest for paying late

Two interest charges apply, and both are simple interest at 1 percent a month. They have long been known by their section numbers, 234B and 234C. The Income-tax Act, 2025 has renumbered sections from 1 April 2026, but the idea is unchanged, and you will still see the old names widely used.

Deferment interest (234C). This is charged when an instalment is short or late. The charge runs for three months on each of the first three instalments, and one month on the last. There is a little leeway: you are treated as being on time for the first two dates if you have paid at least 12 percent by June and 36 percent by September.

If the freelancer above missed the June payment altogether, and paid everything else on time, the charge would be 1 percent × 3 months × ₹17,460, or about ₹524. That is small. Missing all of them is more costly.

Default interest (234B). This is charged if you have paid less than 90 percent of the tax due by 31 March. It runs from 1 April until you pay, on the shortfall. If that ₹1,16,400 were still unpaid, and you paid on 31 July, four months of interest would be about ₹4,656.

The rates are fixed by law, so a brief delay costs little, but interest does build up across a whole year. A penalty is not normally charged on top, but you should not treat interest as a cheap way to borrow, since part of a month counts as a full month.

Presumptive income

If you are taxed under presumptive schemes, the rule is simpler. Small businesses under 44AD and professionals under 44ADA can pay all their advance tax in one instalment by 15 March. Anything paid by 31 March still counts as advance tax for the year.

Under 44AD, profit is deemed to be 8 percent of turnover, or 6 percent on digital receipts. Under 44ADA, it is 50 percent of gross receipts. The calculator has a choice for this, which puts the whole amount on the March date.

Capital gains and windfalls

You cannot know in June what you will sell in January. The law allows for this. If a capital gain, lottery winning or similar income arrives after a due date, you are not charged deferment interest on the shortfall, as long as you pay the tax on it in the remaining instalments. If it arrives after 15 March, pay by 31 March.

The same logic holds for an uneven business. If income looks larger as the year goes on, raise your later instalments. If it looks smaller, reduce them. You are always working from your best estimate, and you can correct it at each instalment. Anything overpaid comes back as a refund when you file.

How to pay

Pay through the e-Pay Tax service on the income tax portal. Choose the year carefully, since income earned in 2026-27 belongs to assessment year 2027-28, and the portal may also label it as tax year 2026-27. Then select advance tax (minor head 100). Pay by net banking, UPI, card or at a bank counter. You get a challan receipt with a BSR code and serial number, so keep these for your return, as they should also show up in your Form 26AS.

Choosing the wrong assessment year or type of payment is a common mistake. It can often be corrected through your assessing officer or on the portal, but the process is slow, so check before you pay.

Before each date, check your Form 26AS for TDS that clients have already reported, because that reduces what you still owe.

What this calculator assumes

• Tax uses the FY 2026-27 slabs for the regime you choose, with cess and surcharge, and the rebate where it applies.
• Salaried income gets the standard deduction of that regime.
• Old-regime deductions are what you enter, and no age-based limits apply.
• Income is taxed at normal slab rates. Special rates, such as on capital gains, are not applied here.
• It estimates the amounts due, not interest. Your filed return and a tax professional's advice decide the final position.