Can anyone explain how to understand and find a out if my payslip is correct?

4 comments

1. If you are hourly paid then it should have the hours worked.

   You should know your hourly rate of pay (in your employment contract)

   Tax and NI you can find out on the HMRC website and see if its correct for your circumstances

   Any other deductions (pension/ attachments) should be explained by your HR department

2. There are lots of calculator sites that you can enter your salary or hourly wage, and it’ll break down what the expected tax/ni etc will be:

   [https://listentotaxman.com/](https://listentotaxman.com/)

   The main thing to check, if you’re looking at yours and thinking “wow, I didn’t think I’d pay that much tax” is the Tax Code – that tells the systems how much you can earn tax free – for most people this should currently be 1275L which means you can earn £12750 before you start paying income tax.

   If you tax code has any other letters in it (M or X commonly) this means you’ve been put down on an “emergency” tax code – this basically means your employer / payroll don’t know what your tax code should be, so have just assumed you’re paying full tax on everything.

   If that’s the case, contact whoever is responsible for payroll, and ask what they need to get your tax code sorted out – it might just be it’ll go back to normal on your second payslip, at which point any excess tax should get refunded

3. [deleted]

4. Hourly paid.
   You will be paid for each hour that you work, usually deducting any breaks for lunch/dinner. Typically worked out thus. You work 9am until 5:30pm with half an hour for lunch you will be paid for 8 of those hours.

   Contracted
   You will be paid your contracted hours -ie you’re contracted for 40 hours a week, you will be paid that sum. Any overtime will be at the discretion of the company and subject to terms of your contract.

   Your payslip will detail your hours worked at the rate of pay and state total gross earnings (everything)

   You will have deductions from your earnings.
   National Insurance.
   Income Tax
   Pension contribution (if eligible)
   Wage garnishing – if eligible for things like debts, student loans etc.

   There should then be a breakdown of what deductions are taken. Roughly speaking it equals at least 21% of your gross earnings, more if you’re making pension contributions.

   You should then see a breakdown of your employer’s contributions too. They also contribute to your NI and often to your pension.

   Often there will be a breakdown of your various earnings and contributions throughout the current tax year (April to march of following year) so you can see your total annual earnings and contributions.

   Finally there should be a Nett figure, which is your take home pay. This is what you have earned minus all the deductions.

   Additional information. Your payslip should have your national insurance number on it and your tax code. Your tax code indicates what your tax free earnings are. Base rate is £12500 (approx) meaning that your first £12500 of earning are not income taxed (but are subject to NI and pension deductions). You only pay tax on earnings above that £12500.