Guidance

Tell HMRC about a student or postgraduate loan in your tax return

If you complete a Self Assessment tax return, you must use it to tell HMRC about your student or postgraduate loan deductions.

From:
HM Revenue & Customs
Published
29 December 2016
Last updated
1 August 2024 — See all updates

You’ll need to complete the student or postgraduate loan repayment section of your Self Assessment tax return if the Student Loans Company (SLC) has said your repayments were due to start on or before 6 April of the year you’re completing your return for.

If you are paying both a student loan and a postgraduate loan you will need to complete both sections. If you do not give the correct information, you may have to pay penalties.

Your student loan Plan 1, 2 or 4 deduction will be calculated based on 9% of your total Self Assessment (SA) income above the threshold of your repayment plan type.

Your postgraduate loan deduction will be calculated based on 6% of your total SA income above the threshold.

Total income for SA includes:

  • any PAYE (Pay As You Earn) employment income you had in the relevant tax year — your income for all employments will be combined, even if they were under the threshold through PAYE
  • other income to declare, such as:

If you were employed in the relevant tax year, and your pay was over the threshold for your loan or plan type, then your employer would have taken student and postgraduate loan repayments from your salary through PAYE. We will deduct these repayments from the amount you have to repay through SA.

If you are repaying Plan 1, 2 or 4 student loan and postgraduate loan at the same time, you’ll be due to repay 15% of your total income above the threshold.

Information on your loan or plan type is supplied to HMRC by the SLC.

The SLC will not tell HMRC your loan balance, but they will tell HMRC if you have:

  • repaid your loan in full
  • been charged more than you owe

HMRC will take action to reduce or remove your Self Assessment student or postgraduate loan deductions so you do not pay back too much.

You’ll need to give your loan or plan type information when you file your Self Assessment tax return online. If you decide not to file your return online, you can either:

Information you’ll need

You’ll need details of any:

If you have had more than one job in the year, you’ll need to add up the repayments shown on all of your payslips, rather than just those of the most recent job. Your P60 will not show the amounts deducted by a previous employer.

If you do not have access to some or all of your payslips, you can contact your:

  • previous employer
  • current employer, if you’re missing a payslip or P60

If you’ve had more than one source of income in the year, you might have to pay more than just your PAYE deductions.

Off-payroll working

If you are subject to the off-payroll working rules for any period during the tax year, your student and postgraduate loan deductions for that period will be calculated through your Self Assessment tax return.

How to fill in your online tax return

Section 2 — ‘Tell us about you’

Select ‘Yes’.

If the SLC have told you that your repayments started on or before the 6 April of the year you’re completing your return for, even if an employer made repayment deductions or your income was below the relevant threshold, you need to choose either:

  • the student loan plan type you’re repaying
  • postgraduate loan
  • the student loan plan type and postgraduate loan, if you are paying both loans back at the same time

These boxes may already be completed for you.

HMRC systems will then use the information supplied by the SLC to work out the correct repayment amounts due for: 

  • student loan
  • postgraduate loan
  • student loan and postgraduate loan, if you are paying both loans back at the same time

If you change the boxes:

  • a warning message will be issued advising that the entry is different from the plan type or loan provided by the SLC — the warning message will advise you to check the letter from the SLC for the correct loan or plan type
  • an automatic calculation will be issued advising HMRC has changed the loan, plan type and the affect this has had on the calculation

Recording incorrect loan types will affect the student loan and postgraduate loan amount charged. HMRC systems will verify the information supplied by the SLC and a calculation will be automatically issued to advise of any changes.

These are the only questions you have to answer if you’re repaying your student loan or postgraduate loan, or both, and do not have any PAYE income.

Section 4 — ‘Fill in your return’

Put the total of the amounts already deducted through your employment for the tax year you’re completing your return for. You can find these amounts on your P60 or by adding up all the deductions for the student loan, postgraduate loan, or for both, on your payslips for that year.

You need to record the student loan plan type deductions and postgraduate loan deductions separately in the relevant boxes.

Do not include any overseas direct debit payments or voluntary payments you have made in this section.

The repayment amount deducted by your employer may already show here. You need to check the amount is correct even if it’s zero.

If it’s correct, choose ‘Yes’ then click ‘Save and continue’.

If it’s not correct, choose ‘No’ and enter the correct amount. Remember to tell us why the figure is different and include the name and date of the document that shows this.

We’ll check the amount given against the information provided by your employer.

Recording incorrect deductions will affect the student loan and postgraduate loan charges, and could result in you being charged more.

Watch a video to help you complete your tax return

You can watch YouTube videos to help you complete this section.

Watch a YouTube video about why a tax return asks about Income Contingent Student Loans.

Why does my tax return ask about income contingent student loans?

Watch a YouTube video about why a tax return asks about postgraduate loans.

Why does my tax return ask about postgraduate loans?

Watch a YouTube video about how to show student loan and postgraduate loan on your tax return.

How do I show student loan and postgraduate loan on my tax return?

How to fill in your paper tax return

Box 1

Put an ‘X’ in box 1 if the SLC have told you that your repayments started on or before 6 April of the year you’re completing your return for, even if the income is below the threshold for the loan type.

This is the only question you have to answer if you’re repaying your student loan, postgraduate loan, or both, and do not have any PAYE income.

Box 2

Put the total of all student loan Plan 1, 2 or 4 deductions taken from all your employments through PAYE in the tax year you’re completing your return for. You will find this information on your P60 or by adding up all the Plan 1, 2 or 4 deductions on your payslips for that year.

Box 3

Put the total of all postgraduate loan deductions taken from all your employments through PAYE in the tax year you’re completing your return for. You will find this information on your P60 or by adding up all the postgraduate loan deductions on your payslips for that year.

Recording incorrect deductions will affect the student loan and postgraduate charges, and could result in you being charged more.

If you are paying both student loan and postgraduate loan then complete box 2 and box 3.

Overseas Direct Debit payments

If you have been paying Direct Debit payments to the SLC while you have been abroad your tax return will need to include your total income.

Your student loan repayments will be calculated on this total income, but will not take into account the Direct Debit payments you have already made to the SLC.

After you send your tax return, contact the Student Loan Company and they will tell HMRC how much you have paid.

HMRC then uses this figure to reduce the amount of tax you owe.

Voluntary payments

If you want to, you can make additional payments to the SLC. These voluntary payments are separate to amounts collected by your employer or through your tax return. Making voluntary payments will not change the amounts collected by your employer or through your tax return.

You cannot choose to make these additional payments instead of your normal payments and voluntary payments cannot be refunded.

Voluntary payments will reduce the overall length of your loan and the interest charged on it.

Find out how to make a voluntary payment.

If you have payrolled benefits in kind

Student and postgraduate loan deductions are not due on payrolled benefits in kind that are not subject to Class 1 National Insurance contributions.

Currently, our Self Assessment system is not able to tell the difference between these payrolled benefits in kind and the rest of the PAYE income. As a result, these are included in the student loan and postgraduate repayments calculations.

If your payrolled benefits in kind are not subject to Class 1 National Insurance contributions, you should complete the following steps to make sure your loan deductions are correctly calculated.

If you complete an online tax return

  1. Deduct your payrolled benefits in kind from your total PAYE income that is shown on your P45 or P60 (your employer can provide the figures if you are unsure).

  2. Go to the ‘Fill in your return’ section (section 4), find the ‘Income for your employer’ section and enter the figure from step 1 into the ‘pay from employer’ (box employment 03).

  3. Select ‘yes’ when asked if you have received taxable benefits from your employer.

  4. In the next section, enter the payrolled benefits in kind figure in the ’other benefits’ box (box employment 20).

  5. Enter the following note in ‘additional information’ box — ‘I have entered my payrolled benefits in kind in the ‘other benefits’ section as I’m a student loan borrower’.

If you complete a paper return

  1. Deduct your payrolled benefits in kind from your total PAYE income as shown on your P45 or P60 (your employer can provide the figures if you are unsure).

  2. Go to the employment page and enter this figure in the ‘pay from this employment’ box (box 1).

  3. Enter the benefits in kind figure into the ‘other benefits’ box (box 15) on the ‘employment’ page.

  4. On the SA100 form, enter the following note on page TR7 into the ‘any other information’ box (box 19) — ‘Figure entered in box 15 relates to my payrolled benefits in kind as I am a student loan borrower.’

Example of how to work out and enter your payrolled benefits in kind on your tax return

The total income on your P45 or P60 is £50,000 (including a company car benefit). Your employer confirms the company car benefit is £10,000.

This means your PAYE income figure is £40,000 and your ‘benefits in kind’ figure is £10,000.

You would enter £40,000 in the ‘pay from employment’ box (online return) or ‘pay from this employment’ box (paper return).

You would enter £10,000 in ‘other benefits’ box (online and paper return).

Updates to this page

Published 29 December 2016
Last updated 1 August 2024 + show all updates

  1. Information added to confirm that the Student Loans Company will not tell HMRC your loan balance. Link to 'How do I show Student Loan and Postgraduate Loan repayments on my tax return?' has been updated.

  2. Information added to confirm that the Student Loans Company will advise HMRC if you have overpaid or repaid your loan and that HMRC will take action to reduce or remove loan deductions when this happens. Information added to confirm you will need to tell HMRC details of any student loan or postgraduate loan repayment plan you are on when completing your Self Assessment tax return.

  3. Added translation

  4. Information added about how to complete your tax return if you receive payrolled benefits in kind from your employer.

  5. Information added on how to request a SA100 paper form

  6. The guide has been updated to include student loan Plan 4.

  7. YouTube videos to help you fill in your tax return have been added.

  8. Information about 'Off-payroll working' and PGL has been added.

  9. This guide has been amended for the 2019 to 2020 tax year.

  10. Information about overseas Direct Debit payments has been added.

  11. This guidance has been updated with information on how to give details of your Student Loan on an online tax return.

  12. Added translation

  13. First published.

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