Every correction we issue is recorded here, with what was wrong, how large it was, and exactly what has changed.
Correction — deployed and applied
Error identified and corrected 29 August 2026 · Deployed to production on 30 August 2026 · Reference PS-C1 · Model PS-A1 → PS-A3
The model removed target variable pay from gross salary before calculating income tax. Variable pay that is actually paid is taxable salary income, so removing it from the tax base understated the tax figure.
The same model then described what remained as the share of CTC "reaching your bank account". Because variable pay had been removed from that figure too, the percentage measured neither total cash received nor the recurring monthly credit.
Variable pay actually paid is included in cash received and in taxable salary. Two figures are now reported separately rather than blended: regular monthly net, the recurring bank credit that excludes variable pay, and annual net cash, everything received across the year. Three payout scenarios are published — none of the target variable paid, half paid, and all paid — because target variable pay is not guaranteed and assuming it is always paid would be its own distortion.
The comparison below assumes 40% basic, a 10% target variable component, and 100% of that variable actually paid. Professional tax is excluded, and the provident fund is on the capped basis.
| Annual CTC | Tax under PS-A1 | Correct tax (100% payout) | Understated by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to ₹12 lakh | ₹0 | ₹0 | No error — tax is nil either way |
| ₹15 lakh | ₹25,536 | ₹89,630 | ₹64,094 |
| ₹20 lakh | ₹1,38,307 | ₹1,79,907 | ₹41,600 |
| ₹30 lakh | ₹3,57,461 | ₹4,51,061 | ₹93,600 |
| ₹40 lakh | ₹6,32,261 | ₹7,57,061 | ₹1,24,800 |
| ₹50 lakh | ₹9,07,061 | ₹10,63,061 | ₹1,56,000 |
The old ₹15 lakh figure of ₹25,536 is not wrong in every sense. It is the correct tax at ₹15 lakh CTC if none of the target variable pay is actually paid. PS-A1's error was presenting it as the answer regardless of payout.
Under PS-A3 the ₹15 lakh figures are: ₹25,536 at nil payout, ₹77,930 at half payout, and ₹89,630 at full payout, which is the primary scenario. Where ₹25,536 still appears on the site, it is labelled as the nil-payout case.
We had said an additional ₹1 lakh of CTC could deliver as little as ₹33,643. The corrected model does not reproduce that figure — it was an artefact of the same defect — and it is removed.
We had also published a fixed CTC band for the effect where a raise reduces take-home. That effect is real, but on a CTC basis its boundaries move with the salary structure, so only the gross-salary boundaries are published, on the research index.
The ₹15,000–₹90,000 monthly CTC pages were not affected by the variable-pay defect — they model no variable pay and were internally consistent. They did, however, apply a flat ₹2,400 annual professional tax to a national figure. Professional tax varies by state — it is levied by state under Article 276 and is nil in several states, so applying one figure nationally was unsuitable. Those pages now exclude it and say so.
National figures across the site exclude professional tax for the same reason. The salary calculator accepts a professional tax amount you enter, defaulting to zero.
The following URL clusters are corrected and live: the salary calculator, the income-tax calculator, /salary/ (hub and twelve amount pages), /monthly-salary/ (fourteen amount pages, professional tax change), /tax/ (hub and ten amount pages), /guides/ctc-to-in-hand-salary, /guides/what-is-ctc, and the research index with its downloadable dataset.
Deployed to production on 30 August 2026. Every correction listed above is live on this site. That includes the salary calculator, where the introductory example and quick-reference table were also rebuilt from the corrected model — those had continued to show the older figures after the calculation itself was fixed, and were corrected before deployment.
The model was written to exclude variable pay from monthly cash, which is reasonable, since variable pay is usually paid annually or quarterly. The mistake was carrying that exclusion into the tax calculation, where it does not belong. Nothing in our review process tested whether the tax base was complete. Automated tests now reproduce this specific defect and fail if it returns.
If a figure on this site looks wrong, write to contact@paisasamajh.in with the page and, if you have it, the official source that contradicts us. Confirmed errors are recorded here with the same detail. We do not edit quietly.
Issued by the PaisaSamajh editorial desk · 29 August 2026 · Editorial policy · Methodology and changelog
Target variable pay was removed from both received cash and taxable salary, which understated income tax on pages that convert CTC to in-hand salary.
Yes. Every correction listed on this page was deployed to production on 30 August 2026, including the salary calculator's introductory example and quick-reference table, which were rebuilt from the corrected model before deployment.