Advance Tax Calculator

Advance Tax In India: The Complete Guide For FY 2026-27

Advance tax is income tax paid as you earn rather than in one lump at the end of the year. The law calls it "pay as you earn". If your tax bill for the year, after knocking off TDS and TCS, comes to Rs. 10,000 or more, the advance tax provisions (Sections 403 to 408 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, which carry over Sections 207 to 211 of the 1961 Act) require you to pay it across the year in instalments. Miss those instalments and interest follows automatically under Sections 424 and 425 (earlier Sections 234B and 234C), calculated by the system when your return is processed.

Who Actually Has To Pay

Anyone whose estimated liability for FY 2026-27 crosses Rs. 10,000 after TDS: salaried employees with rental income, fixed deposit interest, dividends, capital gains or freelance fees on the side, freelancers and consultants, business owners, and companies. There is one clean exemption. Under Section 207, a resident individual aged 60 or above who has no income from business or profession is not liable to pay advance tax at all, however large the pension, rent or interest income. The moment such a person has business or professional income, the exemption goes.

The Four Due Dates

For everyone other than presumptive taxpayers, the year is split into four cumulative milestones. Each figure is a running total, not a fresh payment of that percentage.

Taxpayers who declare income under the presumptive schemes of Section 44AD or Section 44ADA have a much simpler rule: the entire advance tax for the year is due in a single instalment by 15 March 2027. There is no June, September or December obligation for them.

Any tax paid after 31 March but before filing is not advance tax. It is self assessment tax under Section 140A, and it does not stop Section 234B interest from running.

How The Amount Is Worked Out

The tax itself follows the regime you expect to use when you file. This calculator applies the new regime slabs for FY 2026-27 of nil up to Rs. 4 lakh, 5 percent to Rs. 8 lakh, 10 percent to Rs. 12 lakh, 15 percent to Rs. 16 lakh, 20 percent to Rs. 20 lakh, 25 percent to Rs. 24 lakh and 30 percent above that, with a standard deduction of Rs. 75,000 for salary and pension and the Section 87A rebate of up to Rs. 60,000 that makes taxable income up to Rs. 12 lakh tax free. Under the old regime it applies the Rs. 2.5 lakh, Rs. 3 lakh or Rs. 5 lakh basic exemption by age, a Rs. 50,000 standard deduction, the Section 87A rebate up to Rs. 5 lakh, and whatever deductions you enter. Surcharge and marginal relief are applied on top for higher incomes.

Section 234C: Interest For Missing An Instalment

Section 234C charges simple interest at 1 percent per month on the shortfall in each instalment: three months of interest for the first, second and third instalments, and one month for the last one. There is a built in tolerance for the first two dates that many people miss. No interest is charged if you have paid at least 12 percent of the liability by 15 June and at least 36 percent by 15 September, even though the scheduled targets are 15 percent and 45 percent. The December and March milestones have no such cushion.

The first proviso to Section 234C protects income you could not reasonably have forecast: capital gains, winnings from lotteries and games, dividend income, and income from a business or profession that arose for the first time. No interest applies to the shortfall caused by that income provided the tax on it is paid in the next instalment that falls due, or by 31 March if none remains. It is not automatic. You have to identify the income and show the tax went in on time, and the relief covers 234C only, not 234B.

Section 234B: Interest For Falling Short Overall

Section 234B is the bigger of the two in most cases. If the advance tax you paid during the year is less than 90 percent of the assessed tax, interest runs at 1 percent per month on the entire shortfall from 1 April after the end of the tax year until the balance is paid or the return is processed. Pay nothing during the year and file in July, and you are looking at four months of interest on the whole amount. Cross the 90 percent line and 234B does not apply at all, even if individual instalments were late, though 234C still would.

How To Pay

Use the e-Pay Tax service on the income tax e-filing portal. Pick Challan 280, choose payment type "Advance Tax" (code 100), and pick the year carefully: income earned from April 2026 to March 2027 is tax year 2026-27 under the 2025 Act (the old AY 2027-28), so check which label the challan screen uses. Picking the wrong year is the single most common mistake, and correcting it later means a challan correction request. Save the receipt: the payment appears in Form 26AS and the Annual Information Statement, and you claim it in the taxes paid schedule of your return.