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Tax-year changes, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka tax changes for 2026/27

Nothing in APIT or EPF changed on 1 April 2026: Budget 2026 left personal income tax alone, so the relief and bands set in April 2025 carry on. Here is each rule side by side.

Reviewed by CentExactRules effective 2 sources

The 2025 rules carry on

The year of assessment 2026/27 runs on the same APIT rules as 2025/26. The personal relief is still Rs 1,800,000, the first band of taxable income above it is still charged at 6% up to Rs 1,000,000 of taxable income, and the top rate of 36% still starts above Rs 2,500,000 of taxable income. Budget 2026 made no change to personal income tax or to the APIT tables, so a salary that has not changed gives the same take-home pay to the rupee, which the impact table shows at eight salaries.

The bigger change came a year earlier. From 1 April 2025 the Inland Revenue Department raised the personal relief from 1,200,000 to 1,800,000 rupees a year and widened the first band, so 2025/26 was the year payslips moved. If your pay changed between March and April 2026, the reason is your salary, an allowance or a change of employer, not the tax tables.

EPF and ETF are unchanged

You still contribute 8% of your pay to the Employees' Provident Fund, your employer adds 12%, and your employer pays 3% to the Employees' Trust Fund. APIT is worked out on your pay before your EPF contribution comes off, so the contribution does not reduce your tax. To see your own figures, try your salary in the take-home pay calculator.

Every rule, 2025-26 and 2026-27

None of the 14 rules below differs between the two years. Each value is read from the 2025-26 and 2026-27 datasets, so a rule appears as changed only if the published figure changed.

Income tax (APIT)

Income tax (APIT): 2025-26 and 2026-27
Rule2025-262026-27Change
Personal reliefRs 1,800,000Rs 1,800,000No change
First band: ends atRs 1,000,000Rs 1,000,000No change
First band: rate6%6%No change
Second band: ends atRs 1,500,000Rs 1,500,000No change
Second band: rate18%18%No change
Third band: ends atRs 2,000,000Rs 2,000,000No change
Third band: rate24%24%No change
Fourth band: ends atRs 2,500,000Rs 2,500,000No change
Fourth band: rate30%30%No change
Fifth band: rate36%36%No change
Charged on pay before the EPF contributionYesYesNo change

EPF and ETF

EPF and ETF: 2025-26 and 2026-27
Rule2025-262026-27Change
Employee EPF contribution8%8%No change
Employer EPF contribution12%12%No change
Employer ETF contribution3%3%No change

Take-home pay under both years' rules

Annual take-home pay at each salary, worked out by the take-home pay calculator's own engine under the 2025-26 rules and the 2026-27 rules, with the calculator's opening assumptions for everything else.

Employee with the personal relief

Take-home pay, Employee with the personal relief, 2025-26 and 2026-27
Salary2025-26 take-home2026-27 take-homeChange a year
Rs 1,200,000Rs 1,104,000.00Rs 1,104,000.00No change
Rs 1,800,000Rs 1,656,000.00Rs 1,656,000.00No change
Rs 2,400,000Rs 2,172,000.00Rs 2,172,000.00No change
Rs 3,000,000Rs 2,664,000.00Rs 2,664,000.00No change
Rs 3,600,000Rs 3,090,000.00Rs 3,090,000.00No change
Rs 4,800,000Rs 3,816,000.00Rs 3,816,000.00No change
Rs 6,000,000Rs 4,488,000.00Rs 4,488,000.00No change
Rs 9,000,000Rs 6,168,000.00Rs 6,168,000.00No change

Work out your own figure: take-home pay on 2026-27 rules or on 2025-26 rules.

Data sources

Both years' rules are read from datasets that record where each figure came from and when it applies. 2026-27 took effect on 1 April 2026.

  1. Sri Lanka: APIT (PAYE) and EPF, year of assessment 2026/27

    Inland Revenue Department, tax chart Y/A 2025/2026; Inland Revenue Department, APIT tax tables; KPMG, Sri Lanka Budget 2026 tax proposals.

    Effective 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. Retrieved 29 August 2026. Within its effective period.

    The rate table published for Y/A 2025/2026 carries into 2026/27: the Budget 2026 contained no personal income tax or APIT proposals. Personal relief is 1,800,000 rupees a year, raised from 1,200,000, and the 12% band that existed in earlier years was removed. Only primary employment on Table 01 is modelled: secondary employment, terminal benefits, gratuity, lump sums and non-cash benefits use separate tables and are excluded, as are rent relief and solar relief, which are annual-return items.

    How we checked these figures

    APIT is computed on gross remuneration, without deducting the employee's own 8% EPF contribution. Payroll vendors differ on this point; the Inland Revenue Act taxes employment income gross and Table 01 takes monthly regular profits from employment as its input, so that is the reading implemented here, and it is stated on the tool page so a user can see the assumption.

  2. Sri Lanka: APIT (PAYE) and EPF, year of assessment 2025/26

    Inland Revenue Department, tax chart Y/A 2025/2026; Inland Revenue Department, APIT tax tables.

    Effective 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026. Past its effective period.

    The Inland Revenue Department's rate table for the year of assessment 2025/2026, which runs from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. Personal relief is 1,800,000 rupees a year, raised from 1,200,000 in 2024/25, and the five bands start at 6% on the first 1,000,000 of taxable income. Only primary employment on Table 01 is modelled: secondary employment, terminal benefits, gratuity, lump sums and non-cash benefits use separate tables and are excluded, as are rent relief and solar relief, which are annual-return items.

    How we checked these figures

    APIT is computed on gross remuneration, without deducting the employee's own 8% EPF contribution. Payroll vendors differ on this point; the Inland Revenue Act taxes employment income gross and Table 01 takes monthly regular profits from employment as its input, so that is the reading implemented here, and it is stated on the tool page so a user can see the assumption.