Indian statutory payroll

Indian statutory payroll: PF, ESI, PT, LWF and TDS

HRMSMax calculates the statutory deductions and employer contributions in Indian payroll — EPF with pension, EDLI and administrative charges; ESI; professional tax for eight states; labour welfare fund for twelve; and income-tax TDS under the old and new regimes — from effective-dated rules, and prepares return files and registers from each frozen payroll.

HRMSMax does not file returns, generate challans or pay dues. Your team uploads the files and pays on the EPFO, ESIC, state and income-tax portals.

Information reviewed on .

What HRMSMax does for each statute

StatuteCalculatedPrepared from payrollFiling and payment
EPF, EPS and EDLIEmployee share; employer share split between pension fund and provident fund; EDLI; administrative charges; voluntary PFECR text file for upload; PF reportsBy you, on the EPFO portal
ESIEmployee and employer contributions, with eligibility by wage and contribution periodMonthly contribution file (CSV) with days and wages; ESI reportsBy you, on the ESIC portal
Professional taxMonthly deduction by state slab, for the states listed belowPT registerBy you, as each state requires
Labour welfare fundEmployee and employer amounts in the state's collection monthsLWF registerBy you, as each state requires
Income-tax TDSMonthly TDS from a yearly projection, under the old or new regime, using the employee's declarationsQuarterly salary TDS annexure (CSV); indicative Form 16 Part A and Part B PDFsBy you — statement through the department's utility, challans and certificates through TRACES

How statutory rules come into force

Rates, ceilings, thresholds and slabs are held as effective-dated rules, each with the source it was taken from. A new rule applies from its effective date; payroll for an earlier month is calculated with the rule that applied then.

  • A company can add its own dated rule for a state, and HRMSMax warns when a state rule it is using has not been marked as verified.
  • The reduced PF contribution rate for eligible establishment classes applies only after a second person approves the classification. Until then the standard rate applies.
  • A tax year's rule set must be confirmed by a person before it can drive TDS.

This page deliberately does not print rates or wage limits: they change by notification and the regulator is the authority. See the official sources.

EPF, EPS and EDLI

  • The employee's contribution, and the employer's contribution split between the Employees' Pension Scheme and the provident fund, calculated on PF wages restricted to the wage ceiling by default.
  • EDLI and PF administrative charges as employer costs; both stop for establishments exempted under the Act.
  • Pension-fund contribution stops when a member reaches the age at which the scheme stops it.
  • Voluntary PF elected by the employee, with an optional company cap. There is no employer match on it.
  • A joint option to contribute on higher wages is recorded and reported; it does not change the calculated ceiling by itself.

Higher pension contributions under the EPS on actual wages are not calculated.

ESI

Employee and employer contributions for employees within the ESI wage limit, with coverage continuing to the end of the contribution period once an employee is covered, and the exemption of the employee's share for low daily wages. The contribution file carries each insured person's number, days, wages and reason code for upload.

Professional tax

State slabs are included for Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, including a different amount in one month where the state requires it and, in Maharashtra, gender-based slabs. For a state outside this list HRMSMax deducts nothing and shows a warning, so the company can add that state's rule. In Tamil Nadu, where local bodies set the amount, check the rule against your local body before use.

Labour welfare fund

Employee and employer contributions in each state's collection months, for Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal. Confirm each state's current amounts before relying on a default.

Income-tax TDS

  • Old and new regime, chosen by the employee in self-service, with the new regime as the default.
  • Declarations — investments, health insurance, NPS, home-loan interest, house rent and more — with proof upload, verification and approval, open for a company-set window.
  • A yearly projection that spreads tax across the remaining months, and an optional extra TDS the employee elects.
  • Forms follow the period. For periods before 1 April 2026 HRMSMax labels the statement and certificate Form 24Q and Form 16; from 1 April 2026, under the Income-tax Act, 2025, it labels them Form 138 and Form 130.

The TDS annexure is a CSV of salary, PAN and TDS by employee — not a validated upload file. The Form 16 PDFs are marked indicative: the certificate you issue is the one generated from TRACES.

Wages under the Code on Wages

Every salary component is classified against the Code on Wages, 2019 wage definition — included, one of the listed exclusions, or remuneration in kind. Where exclusions exceed half of total remuneration, the excess is added back to wages, and ESI wages follow the Code on Social Security, 2020. HRMSMax applies these definitions to payroll from 21 November 2025, the date the Labour Codes took effect. How the PF wage base is affected is left as a configuration decision for each company.

Tracking what was filed

A statutory submissions register records each return you file — PF ECR, ESIC, TDS statement, Form 16, PT and LWF — with its status (pending, filed, acknowledged, rejected, revised), the amount computed against the amount remitted, and revisions. Marking a return as filed requires the portal's reference number, entered by the person who filed it. A compliance-obligations view, built from frozen payroll, tracks due dates, readiness, payment, filing and acknowledgement for each statute.

Questions

Does HRMSMax file PF, ESI or TDS returns?

No. HRMSMax calculates the contributions and prepares the files — the ECR, the ESIC contribution file and the TDS annexure. Uploading, filing and paying are done by your team on the government portals.

Does HRMSMax guarantee statutory compliance?

No software can. HRMSMax calculates from dated, source-referenced rules and warns about unverified ones, but the employer remains responsible for the rules configured, the returns filed and the payments made.

Which states does HRMSMax support for professional tax?

Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. For other states, a company can add the state's rule itself.

Does HRMSMax support the new tax regime?

Yes. TDS is calculated under the old or new regime as the employee chooses, with the new regime as the default.

Does HRMSMax generate Form 16?

It produces indicative Form 16 Part A and Part B PDFs from payroll. The certificate issued to employees should be the one downloaded from TRACES.

Does HRMSMax calculate EPS higher pension?

No. Contributions on higher wages under a joint option are recorded, but higher pension contributions are not calculated.

Official sources

Statutory rules change. The authority on any rate, ceiling, threshold or due date is the regulator, not this page:

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