Gross salary

The total pay an employee earns for a period before any tax or other deduction is taken off.

Gross salary is the figure on the offer letter and the top line of a payslip. It adds the basic salary and every allowance or other earning that belongs to the period, before tax, fund contributions, loan instalments or recoveries are subtracted.

Two people with the same gross can take home different amounts, because deductions depend on the person: their tax position, their loans and their fund membership. When someone asks what they earn, check whether they mean gross or net.

Illustrative example. An invented employee has a gross salary of 150,000 rupees for the month. After deductions they receive less. The 150,000 is still the starting figure for every calculation on the payslip.

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General information, not tax or legal advice.

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