NI EE is the National Insurance you pay. NI ER is the National Insurance your employer pays on top of your salary, and it never comes out of your pay. Those two lines cause more confusion than anything else on a UK payslip, but they are only the start. This guide works through every abbreviation you are likely to see, grouped by the section of the payslip it appears in, with the 2026/27 figures that sit behind each one.
The identity lines
Tax code. Usually 1257L in 2026/27, meaning you can earn £12,570 in the year before paying income tax. The number is your tax-free allowance with the last digit removed. The letter tells payroll how to treat it:
- L: standard personal allowance.
- M or N: you receive or give 10% of the allowance under the Marriage Allowance.
- T: HMRC needs to review the code, often because of an estimate in it.
- K: your deductions exceed your allowance, so an amount is added to your taxable pay rather than taken off. Common with large company car benefits or underpaid tax.
- BR: all pay taxed at 20%, usually a second job.
- D0 or D1: all pay taxed at 40% or 45%.
- 0T: no allowance, but the normal bands apply. Often a new job with no P45.
- NT: no tax deducted.
- S in front: Scottish rates. C in front: Welsh rates.
- W1, M1 or X at the end: the code is applied non-cumulatively, see below.
The tax code checker translates any code into pounds.
NI number. Two letters, six digits, one letter. It identifies your National Insurance record and never changes.
NI category or NI letter. A single letter that sets the National Insurance rate. A is standard. C means you are over State Pension age and pay no employee National Insurance. M is under 21, H is an apprentice under 25, V is a veteran in their first year of civilian work; all three reduce the employer’s contribution, not yours. B is the married women’s reduced rate for a small group who opted in before 1977. J or Z mean you have deferred contributions because you have another job.
Tax period. The tax year runs from 6 April, so period 1 is April, period 7 is October and period 12 is March. On a weekly payslip, week 1 ends on 12 April. This number matters because income tax is worked out cumulatively across the year.
Payroll number or employee ID. Your employer’s internal reference. Payroll will ask for it before anything else.
The pay section
Basic pay or salary. Your contractual pay for the period before anything is added or taken away.
Gross pay. Everything you earned in the period: basic pay plus overtime, bonus, commission, holiday pay, statutory payments and back pay.
Taxable pay or tax gross. Gross pay minus anything that is not taxable, most commonly pension contributions taken under a net pay or salary sacrifice arrangement. This is the figure income tax is worked out on. If you see two different gross figures, this is why.
NI-able pay or NIable gross. The pay National Insurance is charged on. It is usually the same as gross pay, except under salary sacrifice, where the sacrificed amount is removed before National Insurance is worked out. Pension contributions taken from net pay or under relief at source do not reduce it.
OT or O/T: overtime. Hol or HP: holiday pay. Comm: commission. BP or arrears: back pay for an earlier period. SSP, SMP, SPP, ShPP, SAP: statutory sick, maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption pay. These are taxable and count towards National Insurance like ordinary pay.
BIK or P11D: a benefit in kind, such as a company car or private medical insurance. If your employer payrolls benefits, the cash value appears here so that tax is collected each period. If not, the benefit is taxed by reducing your tax code instead, and you receive a P11D form by 6 July each year.
The deductions section
PAYE, tax or income tax. Pay As You Earn, the income tax deducted this period. In 2026/27 it is 20% on taxable pay above the allowance, 40% above £50,270 a year (£4,189 a month), and 45% above £125,140.
NI EE or EE NIC, employee’s NI, NI (EE’s). The National Insurance you pay. For category A in 2026/27 it is 8% of pay between £1,048 and £4,189 a month (£242 to £967 a week), and 2% on anything above. Unlike income tax it is worked out on each payslip on its own, so a bonus month is charged differently from a normal month. The National Insurance calculator shows the per-period figure.
NI ER or ER NIC, employer’s NI, NI (ER’s). What your employer pays to HMRC on your behalf, at 15% of your pay above £417 a month (£96 a week) in 2026/27. It is shown for information and is not deducted from you. A gross salary of £35,000 costs the employer about £4,500 in NI ER on top. If your payslip shows a large “ER” figure, check that it is in the employer column, not the deduction column.
Pension EE and pension ER, or pens EE / pens ER. Your pension contribution and your employer’s. Under auto-enrolment the minimum is 5% from you, including tax relief, and 3% from the employer, on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270. How your 5% appears depends on the scheme:
- Salary sacrifice: your gross pay is shown already reduced, so there may be no separate pension line at all, or a memo line marked “SS”, “smart” or “exchange”.
- Net pay arrangement: the full contribution is shown as a deduction before tax is worked out.
- Relief at source: a deduction of 4% appears after tax, and the pension provider adds the other 1% by claiming basic rate relief. Higher rate taxpayers claim the rest through Self Assessment.
The pension contribution calculator shows the real cost to you under each method.
SL, SLD or student loan. Your student loan repayment, 9% of NI-able pay above the plan threshold for the period. The threshold is different for each plan: Plan 1 £2,241 a month, Plan 2 £2,448, Plan 4 £2,816, Plan 5 £2,083. PGL is a postgraduate loan, 6% above £1,750 a month, deducted at the same time. The student loan repayment calculator works out both.
AEO or AOE. An attachment of earnings order, a court-ordered deduction for a debt such as a fine, council tax arrears or maintenance. DEA is a direct earnings attachment, the DWP version for benefit overpayments. CSA or CMS is child maintenance collected through pay.
GAYE or payroll giving. A charity donation taken before tax under Give As You Earn.
Union, STL (season ticket loan), cycle (Cycle to Work), childcare (childcare vouchers, closed to new joiners since 2018), SAYE or sharesave. Voluntary deductions, some of which are tax-advantaged. Salary sacrifice items reduce gross pay; the others come off after tax.
Advance or loan repayment. Recovery of a pay advance or company loan.
The totals
Total deductions. Everything taken off gross pay this period.
Net pay or take-home. Gross pay minus total deductions: the amount that reaches your bank account. On a £35,000 salary with a standard tax code and no pension or loan, it is about £2,393 a month in 2026/27. The take-home pay calculator gives the figure for any salary.
YTD or year to date. The running total since 6 April of gross pay, taxable pay, tax, National Insurance and pension. HMRC uses these figures to work out each month’s tax, which is why a change earlier in the year still affects this month’s payslip. The YTD tax figure should match your P60 at the end of the year.
Taxable pay to date and tax paid to date. The two year-to-date figures that drive cumulative PAYE. Each month payroll works out the tax due on your taxable pay to date, then deducts the tax paid to date. Whatever is left is this month’s tax.
Employer contributions or total employer cost. Some payslips add NI ER and pension ER to show the full cost of employing you, sometimes labelled total reward.
Codes that mean something has gone wrong
W1/M1 or X after the tax code. Your tax is being worked out on this period alone, ignoring the year to date. This is the emergency basis, used when a new employer has no P45 or when HMRC has not yet confirmed a code. It usually means you are paying too much tax if you started mid-year, and the money comes back once a cumulative code is issued. The emergency tax calculator estimates the refund.
0T. No personal allowance at all. Normal in the first month of a new job without a P45. If it persists past a second payslip, contact HMRC.
BR on your main job. You are being taxed at 20% on everything with no allowance. Correct for a second job, wrong for your only job.
K code. Not an error in itself, but check the reason. K codes are common after HMRC collects an earlier year’s underpayment or a large benefit in kind.
The forms that go with a payslip
P45. Given when you leave a job, showing pay and tax to date and your tax code. Hand it to the new employer to avoid an emergency code.
P60. The year-end summary of pay and tax, issued by 31 May. Keep it for Self Assessment, mortgage applications and tax refund claims.
P11D. The statement of benefits in kind, issued by 6 July, unless your employer payrolls benefits.
P800. HMRC’s calculation, sent after the tax year, showing whether you overpaid or underpaid. Not a payslip item, but the document that resolves most payslip disputes.
If a line still does not add up
Start with the tax code, because it explains most surprises. Then compare the gross pay on the payslip with your contract, check whether pension contributions are taken before or after tax, and look at the YTD figures rather than the single month. If a figure still looks wrong, payroll can explain their calculation, and HMRC can be contacted through the HMRC app or the PAYE helpline to correct a code. Our guide on why you paid more tax this month covers the most common cumulative PAYE surprises.
Information, not financial advice. Thresholds are the published 2026/27 figures for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and payslip layouts vary between payroll systems. Check your own circumstances against gov.uk or with your payroll department before acting on them.