HRA Exemption Calculator

Calculate the exempt and taxable parts of HRA for an unchanged salary-and-rent period, using the applicable year and city classification.

The three limits

Eligible HRA exemption is the smallest of actual HRA received, 50% or 40% of eligible salary, and actual rent minus 10% of eligible salary. Negative rent-minus-salary values are treated as zero. Eligible salary includes basic pay, retirement-benefit DA and turnover-based commission.

Choose the correct year and rented city

For 2025–26, the 50% cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. For tax year 2026–27, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune also join that list under the notified 2026 rules. Other cities use 40%. The new tax regime does not permit HRA exemption.

Example with a change in city treatment

With basic pay ₹50,000, HRA ₹25,000 and rent ₹28,000 per month in Bengaluru, the rent-minus-10% limit is ₹23,000. The 2025–26 salary cap is ₹20,000, giving ₹20,000 exemption. In 2026–27 the cap is ₹25,000, so the exemption becomes ₹23,000 per month.

Changes during the year

Run separate calculations when salary, HRA, rent or city changes, then add the period amounts. Do not annualise unrelated periods under a single cap. Keep your payment records and employer-required evidence. This figure is an exemption component, not tax saved and not confirmation that a claim will be accepted.

Technical references: KPMG: notified Income-tax Rules 2026, 30 March 2026 · Income Tax Department: old and new regime FAQs

HRA Exemption Calculator FAQs

It reports only exempt HRA and taxable HRA for the supplied period. Final tax also depends on other income, deductions, rebates and the tax year, so it does not equate the exemption with a tax refund.
Bengaluru is one of four additional cities included in the 50% salary criterion from 1 April 2026. The previous year still uses 40% there. Selecting the financial/tax year prevents applying the new city list to an older period.
HRA Exemption Calculator provides this sample: { "title": "HRA exemption calculation", "summary": [ [ "Rule year", "2026-27" ], [ "Salary cap (%)", 50 ], [ "Monthly exempt HRA (₹)", 23000 ], [ "Period exempt HRA (₹)", 276000 ], [ "Period taxable HRA (₹)", 24000 ] ], "columns": [ "Monthly test", "Amount (₹)" ], "rows": [ [ "Actual HRA received", 25000 ], [ "50% of eligible salary", 25000 ], […. Use the sample button to reproduce it, then replace the inputs with your own values.