West Bengal overhauls Professional Tax entirely - first comprehensive revision in over a decade

West Bengal completely reset its Professional Tax structure for the first time in over a decade, effective 7 August 2026, via Notification No.756-L.

The headline change: the exemption threshold doubled, from Rs 10,000 per month to Rs 20,000 per month - meaning employees earning below Rs 20,000/month now pay no Professional Tax at all in West Bengal, where previously the cutoff sat at half that figure, pulling in a meaningfully larger share of lower and mid-income earners than the new structure does. The entire slab structure above that threshold was also reset from scratch rather than simply adjusted incrementally, with the new highest slab reaching Rs 208 per month, which works out to Rs 2,496 annually - just under the constitutional Rs 2,500 ceiling that applies to Professional Tax nationwide under Article 276.

Separate schedules were also added specifically for professionals taxed by turnover or receipts rather than a flat salary structure, reflecting the reality that Professional Tax applies to a broader population than just salaried employees.

This needs immediate attention for any West Bengal payroll operation: continue running payroll on the old slabs past this effective date, and you'll be over-deducting Professional Tax from a large number of employees who are now below the new, substantially higher exemption threshold - a real, correctable compliance error rather than a minor rounding issue.

Given the scale and recency of this change, it's also worth checking whether any transition guidance or grace period was announced alongside the notification for employers who need time to update payroll systems - this is common practice for major slab overhauls in other states, though it hasn't been independently confirmed for this specific West Bengal notification.