Capital gains tax calculator for mutual funds and shares

The problem it solves

Since 23 July 2024, India has two holding periods instead of three and one long-term rate instead of several. That is simpler on paper, but the answer to "how much tax on this sale?" still depends on what you sold, how long you held it, and whether the ₹1.25 lakh exemption applies. The capital gains tax calculator answers that for a single sale, with the 4% cess included.

The five inputs

The six options in the dropdown are: listed shares or equity mutual funds; unlisted or foreign shares; land or building; gold or silver ETF (listed); gold fund, or physical gold and jewellery; and debt fund bought on or after 1 Apr 2023.

The slab slider only matters where a gain is taxed at your slab rate. For listed equity it changes nothing, because short-term equity gains are taxed at a flat 20% and long-term ones at 12.5%.

What the results show

Three boxes sit at the top: Capital gain (sale minus purchase), a box labelled Long-term or Short-term that shows the rate applied and the rule ("long-term above 12 months", "long-term above 24 months" or "always short-term"), and Tax payable. Below them, "How it is taxed" lists the gain, the exemption deducted (or "No annual exemption on this asset"), the amount taxed, the cess and the total.

Worked example: the defaults

Leave everything as it loads: equity fund units bought for ₹5,00,000, sold for ₹8,00,000, held 18 months.

• Capital gain: ₹3,00,000
• Long-term, at 12.5%
• Less the annual exemption: ₹1,25,000
• Taxed at 12.5%: ₹1,75,000, which is ₹21,875
• Health and education cess at 4%: ₹875
• Tax: ₹22,750

Now drag "Held for" back to 12 months. The box flips to Short-term at 20%, the exemption line goes to a dash, and the tax becomes ₹62,400. At 13 months it is back to ₹22,750. The rule is "more than 12 months", so a sale exactly a year after purchase is still short-term.

Same gain, six assets

Keep the ₹3,00,000 gain and the 30% slab, and change only the dropdown. At 20 months and at 30 months:

Three things stand out. Only listed equity gets the ₹1.25 lakh exemption, which is why it costs ₹16,250 less than the gold ETF at the same 12.5% rate. A gold fund-of-funds needs 24 months where a gold ETF needs 12, so at 20 months the same exposure costs ₹54,600 more. And a debt fund bought after 1 April 2023 never turns long-term, so it pays the slab rate however long you hold it. Foreign shares count as unlisted for Indian tax, so they need 24 months too.

How to read the result

• The exemption is per year, not per sale. The calculator assumes you have the full ₹1.25 lakh available. If you have already booked long-term equity gains this financial year, the exemption left is smaller, and your real tax is higher than shown. Our post on gain harvesting covers using it deliberately each year.
• Small long-term equity gains cost nothing. A ₹1,00,000 long-term gain on an equity fund returns ₹0, because it sits inside the exemption.
• The rebate does not help. A dashed note under the results says it plainly: the §87A rebate that zeroes tax up to ₹12 lakh of income under the new regime cannot be set against capital gains taxed at special rates. Someone with ₹7 lakh of salary and ₹4 lakh of short-term equity gains still pays 20% on the ₹4 lakh.

What it does not do

• One sale at a time. A SIP is many purchases, and redemptions are matched first in, first out. Work out the gain on the units actually sold first; how SIP redemptions are taxed shows how.
• No surcharge. Surcharge on capital gains is capped at 15% and only bites at high incomes; it is not added here.
• No grandfathering or indexation. Equity bought before February 2018 and the 20%-with-indexation option on older property are not modelled. For property, the property capital gains calculator handles the choice.
• No losses. To net losses against gains, use the tax-loss harvesting calculator. For salary and gains in one return, the salary and capital gains calculator applies the rebate and surcharge rules together.

Related reading

The rules behind each row are set out in capital gains tax on stocks and property, and fund-specific detail is in mutual fund taxation in India. Switching between schemes also counts as a sale, as this post on switching explains. When you have a real sale in mind, enter it in the capital gains tax calculator and read the "How it is taxed" rows before you place the order. Figures are for FY 2026-27 and are not tax advice.