Six ready formats, sorted by who is going to read the certificate. A bank wants different things from a visa office, and a landlord needs neither. Reviewed August 2026.
Each format sits on its own page, with every blank in square brackets and a note on who it is for.
The general-purpose version for when nobody has said who is asking, and the lender version with a full breakup, tenure and employment status. The register formats pack has the Form V wage slip for the monthly side.
The salary is the least interesting part. The question this letter has to answer is whether the applicant is coming back, so it carries the approved leave dates, the resumption date and a line confirming the job continues.
Financial-year totals rather than a single month, for anyone on variable pay: sales, commission or overtime. Figures reconcile to Form 16 and the TDS actually deposited.
A deliberately minimal version for a landlord, who does not need a salary breakup, and a cost-to-company version for when somebody asks for CTC and means it.
The decision table, the eight-point checklist to run before you sign, and where the salary certificate actually sits now the labour codes are in force. Or browse all the free HR templates.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) holds every salary revision, so the figures on a certificate are right the first time.
Someone on your team is buying a flat. They need a salary certificate by Friday. So you open the one you wrote for somebody else last year, change the name, the designation and the number, and send it. Then the bank comes back with a query, and it comes back through your employee.
A salary certificate is not a payslip. A payslip is a monthly statement for the employee. A certificate is a summary written to be shown to somebody outside the company who has never heard of you and needs a reason to believe the figure.
Three documents prove what somebody earns, and two of them are compulsory. The annual salary TDS certificate is one, still called Form 16 by everyone, and Form No. 130 in the Income-tax Act 2025 from tax year 2026-27. The monthly wage slip in Form V is the other. When someone leaves there is also a service certificate within ten days at 300 or more workers. The salary certificate is the one nobody mandates.
Which cuts both ways. Nothing external constrains the wording, so the certificate can be written for whoever is reading it: a lender wants the breakup and the tenure, a visa officer wants the return date, a landlord needs neither. But it is also read beside the payslips and Form 16, and it is the only one of the three you write from scratch, so it is the one that ends up disagreeing.
So this is six letters rather than one, sorted by reader. When certificates become a weekly request, Attendo produces them from the salary record instead, which is also the only way the figures stay right.
The decision table from the front of the file. Most certificate requests go wrong here, before a word is written.
| Who is asking | What they want to see | Period | Breakup | Also checks | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank, home loan | Tenure, then the breakup | Monthly | Full | Salary account | 02 |
| Visa office | Leave dates, and that the job continues | Monthly | Summary | Return date | 03 |
| Accountant | Financial-year totals | Yearly | Full | Form 16 match | 04 |
| Landlord | That the income covers the rent | Monthly | None | Nothing else | 05 |
| 6 formats | Plus a guide and an 8-point checklist | One PDF |
The statutory salary certificate, and Form No. 130 from tax year 2026-27. due by 15 June following the financial year, with penalties for delay. A lender asks for two years of it alongside whatever letter you write.
Source: Income-tax Rules 2026, rule 215 and Form No. 130, under s.395(4)The wage slip. Rule 52 of the Code on Wages (Central) Rules, 2026 requires it electronically or on paper, on or before the day wages are paid. A lender asks for three months of these too.
Source: Code on Wages (Central) Rules, 2026, G.S.R. 343(E), 8 May 2026The salary certificate itself is the only one of the three nobody mandates. Which is why the wording is entirely yours, and why it has to agree with the other two: they are read side by side.
Source: Ministry of Labour and Employment, the four labour codesThe designation moved, the salary was revised, and the reference number belongs to somebody else. Start from the format, not from the last letter you sent.
Gross or net? A number on its own invites a query, and the query goes to your employee rather than to you. Say which, every time, and give both where it helps.
A lender reads the certificate beside three months of payslips and two years of Form 16. Rounding up, or adding a bonus that has not been paid, shows up immediately. Certify what the register says.
A mismatch between the certificate, the PAN and the Aadhaar stops a loan application at the document check, before anyone reads the salary. Copy the name from the PAN card.
A rental agent needs to know the income covers the rent. They do not need the PF number or the deductions. Giving out more personal data than the purpose requires is a habit worth not having.
Repealed on 21 November 2025 when the four labour codes came into force. Most formats online still name it. A certificate quoting a dead Act does not fail, but it tells the reader how carefully it was written.
A sample found online, edited each time it is asked for
Bank, visa, annual, rental, CTC and a general version
One PDF, six formats, plus the eight-point checklist. Short form, instant download.
Attendo, formerly Petpooja Payroll, is staff management software built by Petpooja for Indian businesses. 40,000+ businesses use it to run attendance, leaves, shifts, payroll and statutory compliance in one place, across manufacturing, corporate offices, hospitality, retail and education.
Every salary revision already recorded. The figures are right before you start.
