To read your payslip, compare gross pay, each deduction and net pay, then check the current-period figures separately from year-to-date totals. Start with the checklist below. If a deduction concerns your tax code, read the emergency tax code guide or what to do about a wrong tax code.
Your basic rights
An employer must provide a payslip on or before payday. It must show earnings before and after deductions, variable deductions such as tax and National Insurance, and hours where pay varies by time worked.
Payslips may be electronic or printed. Save them securely: they provide evidence of pay, tax and pension contributions.
The main pay figures
Gross pay is pay before deductions. Taxable pay can differ because some payroll items have special tax treatment. Net pay is what remains after deductions. Your payslip should distinguish gross pay, deductions and net pay.
Check current-period and year-to-date columns separately. PAYE normally uses total income so far in the tax year, while a code ending in W1, M1 or X, or marked NONCUM, uses only the current pay period.
Tax code and Income Tax
The code tells payroll how HMRC wants PAYE calculated. For the wider annual calculation, read how Income Tax works.
Compare the payslip code with HMRC’s current record. If the codes differ, ask payroll whether it received the newest notice. Then compare gross pay, the code and tax deducted using HMRC’s current-year tool.
If the code matches HMRC’s record but the circumstances behind it are wrong, follow the steps for a wrong tax code. One unusually high deduction after a bonus does not, by itself, prove that the code is wrong.
Other deductions
Income Tax, National Insurance, workplace pension and student or postgraduate loan deductions are shown as separate items and should be checked under their own labels.
Ask payroll or the relevant scheme or provider how a pension, loan or other deduction was calculated rather than assuming it follows Income Tax bands.
An employer must explain fixed deductions on the payslip or in a separate written statement issued before the first payslip and updated at least annually.
Reconcile a payslip
- Confirm name, payroll number, period and payment date.
- Match salary, hours, overtime, bonus and statutory pay.
- Check gross and taxable pay.
- Compare the tax code with HMRC.
- Review every deduction separately.
- Add deductions and confirm gross-to-net arithmetic.
- Compare year-to-date totals with the previous payslip.
- Match net pay to the bank deposit.
When to contact payroll
Contact payroll for missing hours, wrong rates, duplicated deductions, a code that differs from HMRC’s notice or arithmetic problems. Contact HMRC where its employment, benefit, income estimate or code record is wrong.
Keep screenshots or copies of the relevant HMRC record and payslip, but redact personal identifiers when asking general support questions.
Common mistakes
- Comparing net pay without checking gross inputs.
- Confusing current and year-to-date figures.
- Treating all deductions as tax.
- Asking payroll to invent a code.
- Ignoring pension method.
- Comparing different pay periods as if identical.
What to do next
- Save the payslip.
- Check pay inputs and arithmetic.
- Compare the code with HMRC.
- Resolve payroll errors with the employer.
- Resolve HMRC record errors through its service.
- Check the following payslip.