An Indian entrepreneur has sparked a discussion online after claiming that his friend earning ₹36 lakh per annum in a remote contractual role actually gets more money in-hand than a Google techie with a salary of ₹62 LPA. Devaansh Bhandari made the surprising claim in an X post where he also explained the math.
Bhandari quoted the example of two friends — “My friend has a ₹62L CTC at Google. Another friend is a Remote Contractor making ~ ₹36L ($38k),” he said.
₹62 LPA vs ₹36 LPA
At ₹62 LPA, the Google employee is earning almost double the salary of the person making ₹36 LPA, at least on paper. However, that does not translate into more money in his account every month.
In fact, the person in a remote contractual role actually ends up with more money in his account each month. Bhandari explained how that works out.
Bhandari, the founder of Y Combinator-backed startup Wavelength, said that his friend earning ₹62 LPA gets an in-hand salary of ₹1.5 to 1.8 lakh per month in his account.
On the other hand, the remote contractual employee gets between ₹2.7 to 2.9 lakh per month.
How the math works out
Bhandari explained that in Big Tech companies like Google, a large portion of the package is made up of stocks and bonuses, not direct cash. So the person earning ₹62 LPA on paper has ₹22 lakh as his base salary, ₹35 lakh as stocks vested over four years, and a bonus component of ₹5 lakh.
When you look at what the person really earns annually in usable income, it drops to around ₹30–32 lakh.
After taxes, this big tech employee ends up with a monthly in-hand salary of roughly ₹1.5–1.8 lakh. Another important point is that stocks are not immediate cash—you can only use that money once the shares vest and you sell them. So, while the total compensation looks high on paper, the actual cash flow is much lower.
The tax benefit
In contrast, the second person is a remote contractor earning ₹36 lakh a year, which is significantly less than ₹62 lakh at first glance. However, this income is mostly received as direct cash rather than being split into different components.
More importantly, the contractor benefits from a tax rule (Section 44ADA), where only half of their income is considered taxable. This significantly reduces their tax burden.
Because of this tax advantage, the contractor pays much less tax—around ₹2 lakh—and ends up with a much higher monthly take-home of about ₹2.7 to 2.9 lakh. This means that despite earning a lower headline salary, the contractor actually has far more usable money each month.
Bhandari ended his post by reiterating that CTC does not equal cash, and that “Tax structure matters more than headline salary”.
Internet weighs in
Internet users weighed in on this claim as Devaansh Bhandari’s thread gained traction on X.
Some pointed out how remote work allows people to cut down on cost of living. “Also on site job are in big cities (like Bangalore) where cost of living is also high. Remotely you can work from your hometown, which is low cost (no rent, own home, no food cost),” one X user noted.
“That’s only part of the equation. What about taxes, healthcare benefits, and job security?” another asked.
“Nice to know about this section, thanks for the information,” a user added.