Professional Tax in Karnataka 2026-27 – Slab, Calculator & Due Dates

Karnataka Professional Tax Calculator (FY 2026-27)

Exact PT for every category under the Karnataka Tax on Professions, Trades, Callings and Employments Act, 1976 – salaried, company, director, professional, trader, firm or employer. Verified by a CA.

Karnataka runs PT through two systems. Employers register and deduct PT from employees on a Registration Certificate (RC); every business or self-employed person pays its own PT on an Enrolment Certificate (EC) – mostly a fixed Rs 2,500 a year. A company needs both: an EC for itself and an RC for its payroll. Compliance runs on the e-PRERANA portal (pt.kar.nic.in).

Karnataka has one of the simplest structures in India – a single threshold, with no separate men and women slabs. The slab below applies from 1 April 2025: employees in the Rs 200 slab are deducted Rs 300 in February, so the year totals exactly the Rs 2,500 maximum.

A company registered under the Companies Act, and a banking company, pays Rs 2,500 a year on its own enrolment (Entry 10), and separately deducts employee PT under its RC. A partnership firm or LLP pays Rs 2,500 as a business (under the self-employed or GST entry). Importantly, a partner is not charged separately if the firm itself pays the tax (Explanation IV) – so unlike Maharashtra, partners do not each pay Rs 2,500 when the firm has paid.

A director of a company – including a nominee director – pays Rs 2,500 a year on enrolment (Entry 4), separate from any PT deducted on salary the director draws.

Self-employed professionals with more than two years of standing pay Rs 2,500 a year (Entry 3) – legal practitioners, consultants, chartered accountants and actuaries, engineers, healthcare professionals, estate agents and brokers, architects and interior decorators, journalists and advertising agencies, training institutes, and others. A professional enrols under this entry only after completing two years of standing. In the first two years a professional who already pays income tax may instead be enrolled under Entry 11 (the residual income-tax-payer class), so the first-year relief is not automatic for everyone – confirm your position before treating it as nil.

The full schedule of enrolment rates. Karnataka is simpler than most states – nearly every category is a flat Rs 2,500 a year. Where a person falls under more than one entry, tax is payable under any one of them (Explanation I), so the effective cap is Rs 2,500.

Key reliefs: a partner is not taxed if the firm pays (Explanation IV); each additional place of business is a separate enrolment, except a place used only as a godown (Explanation V); and a lessee in possession of an asset or business is treated as the person liable (Explanation III).

Apply within 30 days of becoming liable. Employers obtain a Registration Certificate (Form 1); businesses and professionals obtain an Enrolment Certificate. Everything – enrolment, registration, returns and payment – is done online on the Karnataka Commercial Taxes e-PRERANA portal, and the certificate can be generated without visiting the PT office.

Late payment attracts interest at 1.25% per month, with a penalty up to 50% of the tax due; a late monthly return carries a penalty of Rs 250 per month of delay. Fully exempt from Karnataka PT: senior citizens aged 60 and above; persons with not less than 40% permanent physical disability or blindness; a partner of a firm where the firm pays the tax; and salaried employees earning up to Rs 25,000 a month. Self-employed professionals enrol only after two years of standing.

If you opt for the old income-tax regime, the PT paid in the year (up to Rs 2,500) is fully deductible from salary under Section 16(iii). The new regime does not allow this deduction.