Capital Gains Tax Calculator
Equity, real estate, gold, crypto — all in one place. LTCG vs STCG auto-detected, Budget 2024 rates applied, indexation grandfathered for legacy real estate. Free, instant.
Asset details
Pick the asset class — we auto-pick the right rate, holding period, and rules. Budget 2024 changes (effective 23 Jul 2024) are baked in.
Capital Gains rates — Budget 2024 (effective 23 Jul 2024)
Listed Equity / Equity MF📈
| STCG (held ≤12 mo) | 20% |
| LTCG (held >12 mo) | 12.5% over ₹1.25L |
Real Estate🏠
| STCG (held ≤24 mo) | Slab rate |
| LTCG (held >24 mo) | 12.5% |
| LTCG with indexation | 20%* |
Gold / Debt MF / Other🏆
| STCG (held ≤24 mo) | Slab rate |
| LTCG (held >24 mo) | 12.5% |
Crypto / VDA💰
| All gains (any holding) | 30% flat |
| TDS on transactions | 1% |
| Loss set-off | Not allowed |
How this calculator works
Holding period auto-detect
Based on purchase and sale dates, we determine STCG vs LTCG using the threshold for that asset class — 12 months for listed equity, 24 months for everything else (Budget 2024 unification).
LTCG ₹1.25L exemption
Listed equity LTCG is tax-free up to ₹1.25 lakh per FY (combined across all listed equity). The exemption is auto-applied here. Budget 2024 raised it from ₹1L.
Real-estate indexation
If you bought property before 23 Jul 2024, you can choose between 12.5% (no indexation) or 20% (with indexation) — whichever gives lower tax. The toggle lets you compare.
Cost Inflation Index (CII)
For indexed-cost computation, we use CBDT's CII series. Indexed cost = original cost × (CII for sale year) / (CII for purchase year). Example: 2001-02 = 100, 2024-25 = 363.
STCG and slab rate
For real estate / gold STCG, tax rate = your normal slab rate. We add the gain to your "other income" (you enter it) and tax everything per the new regime slabs (FY 2025-26).
Surcharge cap on equity LTCG
For listed equity LTCG, surcharge is capped at 15% regardless of total income (vs 25% / 37% otherwise). This is a significant edge case — we don't model surcharge by default; consult a CA for income > ₹50L.
Why we built this capital gains calculator
I'm Prashant, founder of BillCraft. On 23 July 2024, the Finance Minister stood up in Parliament and broke every single Indian capital gains calculator on the internet in a single sentence. Equity LTCG: 10% → 12.5%. STCG: 15% → 20%. Real estate indexation: gone. Property bought before 23 July: grandfathered with a choice of 12.5% without indexation or 20% with indexation, whichever is lower. Debt MFs: already taxed at slab since April 2023, no change. Gold ETF vs physical gold: different rates.
By 25 July, my CA friend in Mumbai had received 14 panicked client emails. By 27 July, I had received 9 reader emails asking which rate applied to an apartment they were about to sell. The existing online calculators were either still showing the old rates, or had blindly updated to 12.5% flat without modelling the grandfathered choice — which for a 2015-purchase Bangalore flat could be the difference between paying ₹3.5L vs ₹6.2L in tax.
I spent the last weekend of July 2024 rebuilding this calculator from scratch. The spec was strict. Auto-detect asset class (listed equity, unlisted equity, equity MF, debt MF, real estate, physical gold, gold ETF, sovereign gold bond, crypto/VDA, foreign equity). Auto-apply the right holding period rule (12/24/36 months — different per asset). Apply the right rate post-23-July vs pre. For real estate bought before 23 July, compute both 12.5%-without-indexation and 20%-with-indexation using actual CBDT cost inflation index numbers (CII 2024-25 = 363), and show the cheaper one.
The crypto/VDA path remains the most depressing screen — 30% flat, no offsetting losses against other heads, no indexation, plus 1% TDS at sale. I left it in because pretending it doesn't exist doesn't make it go away. If you find an edge case the calculator mishandles, email me — I read every message and ship fixes within a week.
Case study: Anjali's Pune flat sale — the grandfather choice
Anjali, 38, dentist in Pune. Bought a 2BHK in Baner in March 2015 for ₹62,00,000 (including stamp duty, registration, broker fee). Sold it in October 2025 for ₹1,48,00,000 to fund a clinic expansion. Her CA initially quoted her ₹10,75,000 in capital gains tax. She ran the same numbers through this calculator and discovered she could legally cut it to ₹6,82,000.
Here's the math. Cost of acquisition: ₹62L. Sale: ₹1.48Cr. Raw gain: ₹86L. The flat was bought before 23 July 2024, so she has the grandfathered choice.
Path A — new rule (12.5% flat, no indexation): Tax = 12.5% × ₹86L = ₹10,75,000.
Path B — old rule (20% with indexation): Indexed cost = ₹62L × (363 / 240) = ₹93,77,500. Indexed gain = ₹1.48Cr − ₹93,77,500 = ₹54,22,500. Tax = 20% × ₹54,22,500 = ₹10,84,500. Slightly worse than Path A.
So far her CA was right — Path A wins by ₹9,500. But Anjali had also incurred ₹4,80,000 in improvement costs (new modular kitchen 2019, full bathroom renovation 2022, structural waterproofing 2023). The CA had ignored these because "they don't really count" — they absolutely do under Section 48 if she has proof. She had GST invoices for all three.
With improvement costs added, Path B becomes: Indexed cost ₹93.77L + indexed improvement ₹7.05L (each improvement indexed from its own year using CII) = ₹100.82L. Indexed gain = ₹47.18L. Tax @ 20% = ₹9.44L. Path A remains at ₹10.75L. Path B now wins by ₹1.31L. And then she invested ₹50L of the proceeds in 54EC bonds (NHAI/REC, 5-year lock-in, 5.25%) — exempting another ₹50L of capital gain. Final tax: ₹6,82,000. Net saving vs CA's first quote: ₹3,93,000.
Catch she almost missed: 54EC bonds must be subscribed within 6 months of sale. She sold in October, deadline was March 2026. Application took 3 weeks to clear through her broker. Cut it close.
5 mistakes that inflate your capital gains tax
- Ignoring the ₹1.25L LTCG exemption on equity. Listed equity / equity-MF LTCG below ₹1,25,000 per financial year is tax-free. If you can harvest gains under the limit each year (sell + immediately rebuy), you reset your cost base for free. Most retail investors never do this.
- Missing improvement costs on property. Under Section 48, the cost of any capital improvement (renovation, additional construction, structural work) is deductible — and indexable if pre-23-July-2024. Keep GST invoices for every paisa. Most CAs ignore these because clients don't volunteer them.
- Choosing the wrong grandfather path on pre-2024 property. The 20%-with-indexation route is usually better when the property has been held 10+ years; the 12.5%-flat route wins for shorter holds. This calculator computes both and shows you the cheaper one.
- Treating crypto losses as offsetable. They aren't. VDA (crypto / NFT) gains are taxed at 30% flat, and losses cannot be set off against any other income — not equity, not real estate, not even other VDAs as per most clarifications. Don't expect a "loss benefit".
- Missing the 6-month deadline for 54EC bonds. If you sell property and want to claim Section 54EC exemption (₹50L cap), you must invest in NHAI/REC bonds within 6 months. After Oct sale → invest by March. Plan ahead; bond allotments take 3-4 weeks.