Salary Certificate, Salary Slip or Form 130?

Banks, landlords and embassies all want proof of income, and there are three documents that can give it. They are not interchangeable: each proves a different thing, comes from a different place and arrives at a different time. Knowing which is which saves a second trip to HR.

Three documents, three jobs

Salary slip. Issued every pay day. It breaks one month’s pay into its parts — basic pay, allowances, provident fund, professional tax, income tax — and shows the amount actually paid. It proves what you were paid in that month. Line by line, it is explained in How to Read Your Salary Slip.

Salary certificate. A single letter on the employer’s letterhead, issued on request, usually for a stated purpose. It certifies that you work there, since when, in what position, and what you are paid now. It proves your employment and your current salary in one page.

Form 130, earlier Form 16. The annual tax certificate. Your employer issues it after the tax year ends, by 15 June, and it summarises the salary paid, the tax deducted and the tax deposited with the government. It proves that tax was deducted from your salary and paid over.

Form 16 has a new number

When the Income-tax Act, 2025 took over from the 1961 Act, the forms were renumbered. The Income Tax Department’s own guidance calls it “Form No. 130 (Earlier Form No. 16)”: it is issued under section 395(4)(b) of the new Act and rule 215(1) of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, where Form 16 was issued under section 203 and rule 31.

So for salary paid from 1 April 2026, the first tax year under the new Act, the certificate is Form 130. The certificate for 2025-26 salary is still the old Form 16. The content is much the same; only the number and the references printed on it are new. Lenders and HR desks will go on saying “Form 16” for a while — they mean the same document.

Which one is usually asked for

A loan or a credit card. Lenders commonly want recent salary slips, often the last three months; Form 130 or Form 16 for the last year or two; and bank statements showing the salary coming in. Some also ask for a salary certificate. Ask the lender for their checklist before you go.

A rented home. Recent salary slips, or a salary certificate, is usually enough.

A visa. Embassies commonly ask for a letter from the employer confirming the job, the salary and the leave approved for the trip. That is a salary certificate, sometimes combined with a no objection certificate. Check the checklist for the visa you are applying for.

Your income-tax return. Form 130 (or Form 16 for 2025-26), to match the tax your employer deducted against what the tax department has on record.

When there is no slip and no Form 130

Smaller employers often do not issue monthly salary slips. And because Form 130 certifies tax deducted, someone whose salary is below the taxable limit often gets no Form 130 at all.

That is where a salary certificate earns its place: one letter from the employer, stating the job and the salary, with the salary credits in your bank statement backing it up.

What a salary certificate should say

Your name and designation; the date you joined; whether the job is permanent, on probation or on contract; your salary, ideally broken into its parts with gross and net pay; and the purpose it is issued for, if there is one. It should be on letterhead, dated, and signed by someone authorised.

The salary certificate format lays all of this out from the figures you enter, with the net pay in words, in English or Hindi. For the monthly slip there is the salary slip format, which also downloads as an Excel sheet with working formulas.