Capital Gains Calculator

Most capital gains calculators answer one small question: I sold this, what do I owe? That is the easy part, and it is not the part that costs people money.

This one does the whole year. Put in everything you have sold, add any losses you are carrying from earlier years, and it works out what you owe, how much of your yearly tax free limit is still sitting unused, and how much more you could book right now without paying anything at all.

If you sold land or a building, it works the tax out both ways. There are two ways to do it, and the wrong one can cost lakhs.

The Rule That Decides Everything

Your losses are taken off your gains first. The free limit is applied to whatever is left over.

That order is why the calculator warns you when you book a loss in a year your gains were already small. The loss is used up against a gain that was never going to be taxed, and it does not carry forward, because none of it is left. You have thrown away something worth 12.5% of its value in a future year.

The same rule works the other way. If you are carrying losses from a bad year, small harvesting achieves nothing, because the losses eat the gain before the free limit is reached. Book a bigger gain instead. Tax harvesting works through both of these with numbers.

The Choice On Older Property

Did you buy the land or building before 23 July 2024? Then there are two ways to work out the tax. You may use the one that costs you less.

One way is 12.5% of the plain gain. The other lifts your old cost for inflation first. Then it charges 20% on the smaller gain. The calculator does both and tells you which one wins. Buy nothing with the money and the plain 12.5% tends to win. That is why people think it always wins.

Spend it on a new home and this can flip. What you spend is a fixed sum, so it covers much more of the smaller gain. Read downsizing your home for a case where the right pick saves nearly ₹8 lakh.

Gold and unlisted shares do not get this choice. People who live abroad do not get it either.

Five Things Worth Knowing

• The clock is twelve months for listed things, twenty four for the rest. Shares and equity funds turn long term after a year. Land and buildings take two years. So do gold and unlisted shares. Being a few days early can change the rate you pay, so check the dates before you place the order.
• Debt funds do not play this game. For most bought in recent years the gain is added to your income and taxed at your slab rate however long you held them. There is no free limit and no lower long term rate waiting.
• Your oldest units are sold first. You do not choose. The earliest ones you bought go first, and they usually carry the biggest gain. Get the capital gains statement from your broker or fund house rather than working it out from memory.
• Short term losses are the more useful kind. They can be set against either sort of gain. Long term losses can only meet long term gains. This calculator spends each kind where it saves the most tax, which is what you would want, but your filing software decides the final order.
• File on time or lose the loss. A loss carries forward for eight years, but only if you filed your return by the due date. Miss the date and it is gone, which is the most expensive paperwork mistake in personal tax.

If any of the terms here are unfamiliar, capital gains basics for investors covers what is taxed, when, and which units count as sold.

This page is for learning. It is not tax advice for you. It uses the rates for the tax year 2026-27. Long term gains are taxed at 12.5%. On listed shares and equity funds the first ₹1,25,000 a year is free. Short term equity gains are taxed at 20%. Debt funds and other short term sales are taxed at your slab rate. A 4% cess goes on top. Bought land or a building before 23 July 2024? It works the tax out the other way too, at 20% on your lifted cost, and takes the lower. The index is 384 this year. The base is 100 for 2001-02. The home relief here assumes you sold a home and bought a home. That is the common case. Selling a plot, or a second house, follows other rules. It assumes you live in India. It leaves out the extra charge on very high incomes. It does not handle stamp duty or the cost of any work you did on the place. Nor the special bank account you must park unspent money in before your return is due. Tax rules change every year. Your filing software or a tax expert should do the real sum. Please check the rules before you act on any of this.