Compliance & labour law · Updated September 2026
Professional tax is a state-level tax on income from employment or a profession, deducted by the employer and remitted to the state government, and several Indian states don’t levy it at all.
Because it’s a state tax under Article 276 of the Constitution, each state that levies it sets its own income-based slabs, due dates and filing frequency, there’s no single national table. A handful of states, commonly cited as including Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh among others, don’t levy professional tax at all, though the exact list can shift and specific states are sometimes described inconsistently across sources, worth confirming directly with the relevant state’s tax department if it’s decision-critical for your business. Applicability follows where the employee actually works, relevant for any multi-location employer. What is constitutionally fixed and not in dispute: Article 276(2) caps total professional tax payable by any one person, to any one state, at ₹2,500 a year, raised from an original ₹250 cap via a 1988 constitutional amendment. Applicability follows where the employee actually works, not where the employer is registered, which matters for any company with staff across multiple states. Professional tax paid is also deductible from taxable salary income under the Income Tax Act, a separate central tax it interacts with but doesn’t replace.
No, professional tax is a separate state-level deduction, distinct from central income tax, though the amount paid is deductible from taxable salary.
Generally the state where the employee actually works, not the employer’s registered head-office location, relevant for multi-state teams.
Yes, that’s a constitutional cap under Article 276(2), no state can charge more than that per person per year.
See professional tax for the underlying mechanics of how it’s calculated and deducted.