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HRA Calculator
Work out how much of your House Rent Allowance is tax-exempt from your basic pay, HRA received, rent paid, and whether you live in a metro city — useful when planning your salary structure or rent declaration.
How to Use HRA Calculator
- 1Enter your basic monthly pay
- 2Enter the HRA you receive and the rent you pay
- 3Select whether you live in a metro city
- 4Click Calculate to see your exempt and taxable HRA amounts
About HRA Calculator
The three-way rule
The HRA exemption on salary is the lowest of three amounts. This tool calculates all three from your inputs and uses the smallest:
- The HRA your employer actually pays.
- Rent paid minus 10% of basic salary.
- 50% of basic salary if you live in a metro (the tool's "yes" option), otherwise 40%.
The remainder of your HRA is taxable and is shown separately.
Example
Basic 50,000, HRA 20,000, rent 25,000, metro: the three amounts are 20,000, 20,000 (25,000 − 5,000) and 25,000. The lowest is Rs. 20,000, so the exemption is Rs. 20,000 and taxable HRA is zero. Use the same period (monthly or yearly) for every field.
Notes
- The exemption applies only under the old tax regime.
- Basic here should include dearness allowance if it counts for retirement benefits.
- Landlord PAN is typically required when annual rent exceeds Rs. 1,00,000.
- From 1 April 2026, under the Income-tax Rules 2026, the 50% rate applies in eight cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. Every other city is at 40%. Choose metro "yes" only for those cities.
Frequently Asked Questions
The tool takes the smallest of: (1) actual HRA received, (2) rent paid minus 10% of basic pay, and (3) 50% of basic (metro city) or 40% of basic (non-metro city) — whichever of the three is lowest becomes your exempt amount.
For HRA purposes, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai are typically treated as metro cities (the higher 50% threshold); other cities use the 40% threshold — check your employer's payroll policy for how they classify your location.
This version is framed around planning your salary structure or preparing your rent declaration during the year — for filing your actual tax return, see the HRA Exemption Calculator in Tax Calculators.
The remainder (HRA received minus the exempt amount) is added to your taxable salary income and taxed at your applicable slab rate.
Yes, employers typically require rent receipts (and a landlord PAN if annual rent exceeds a threshold) before applying the HRA exemption in your payroll TDS calculation.