What is advance tax, and who must pay it?
Advance tax is income tax paid in instalments during the financial year itself, instead of as one lump sum after the year ends. Under Section 208 of the Income Tax Act, it applies whenever your estimated total tax liability for FY 2026-27 — after subtracting any TDS/TCS already deducted at source — exceeds ₹10,000. This covers salaried individuals with significant non-salary income, freelancers, business owners, professionals, and anyone with capital gains, rental income, or interest income large enough to push their tax liability past that threshold.
Senior citizens: an important exemption
Under Section 207, a resident senior citizen (age 60 or above) who does not earn any income from business or profession is fully exempt from paying advance tax, no matter how large their total tax liability is. Their tax is settled through TDS and self-assessment tax at return-filing time instead. This calculator shows that exemption directly when you check the senior-citizen box — it does not attempt to compute an instalment schedule for someone who is legally exempt from having one.
The FY 2026-27 due-date schedule
Four cumulative instalments, each expressed as a percentage of your total estimated tax liability for the year:
| Due date | Cumulative % of total tax |
|---|---|
| 15 June 2026 | 15% |
| 15 September 2026 | 45% |
| 15 December 2026 | 75% |
| 15 March 2027 | 100% |
Because each figure is cumulative, the amount actually due at each date is the gap between that date's percentage and the previous one — the calculator above works this out for you:
So the 15 June payment is 15% of the total; the 15 September payment is a further 30 percentage points (45% − 15%); 15 December adds another 30 points (75% − 45%); and 15 March settles the final 25 points (100% − 75%).
Presumptive taxation: a single-instalment option
If you've opted for the presumptive taxation schemes under Section 44AD (eligible small businesses) or Section 44ADA (eligible professionals), you don't have to follow the four-date schedule at all — you may pay 100% of your advance tax in a single instalment by 15 March. This calculator's default schedule is the normal four-instalment one for taxpayers not under presumptive taxation; if you are, use only the final row.
Worked example: ₹₹18,00,000 gross income, new regime
Taxable income after the standard deduction works out to ₹₹17,25,000; annual tax plus 4% cess comes to ₹₹1,50,800 via the same incomeTax() engine that powers our Income Tax Calculator. Since this comfortably exceeds the ₹10,000 threshold, the instalment schedule looks like this:
| Due date | Cumulative % | Cumulative amount | Instalment due |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 June 2026 | 15% | ₹₹22,620 | ₹₹22,620 |
| 15 September 2026 | 45% | ₹₹67,860 | ₹₹45,240 |
| 15 December 2026 | 75% | ₹₹1,13,100 | ₹₹45,240 |
| 15 March 2027 | 100% | ₹₹1,50,800 | ₹₹37,700 |
What this calculator doesn't model
Two things are deliberately out of scope. First, Section 234C interest: if you pay less than the cumulative percentage due by any instalment date, you owe interest of roughly 1% per month on the shortfall for that instalment — this calculator states the consequence but does not compute the interest amount. Second, TDS/TCS already withheld: the schedule above is based on your gross estimated tax liability, not what you still owe after tax already deducted at source. For a salaried employee, TDS deducted by the employer under Section 192 typically covers most or all of the annual liability automatically (see our TDS on Salary Calculator), so this advance tax calculator is most useful for freelancers, business owners, and anyone with meaningful capital-gains, rental, or other income that isn't already being taxed at source.