Plan 1 loans: What information about my student loan do I need to fill in my tax return?

When filling in your tax return, you will need to include the total of any student loan repayments you have already made under Pay As You Earn (PAYE). Also, although they usually get their information from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), you might sometimes need to inform the Student Loans Company (SLC) direct of PAYE repayments you have made, for example, if there is a delay in passing information from HMRC to the SLC.

Please note that student loan repayments are not tax-deductible expenses on your Self Assessment tax return.

We would recommend you always keep your payslips.

If you have a single job in a tax year, your form P60 from your employer at the end of the year will show how much has been deducted in repayments.

But if you move from one job to another, the form P45 your old employer gives you does not show the total deductions made in that employment. Your old employer will only have ticked a box on the form P45 to indicate to your new employer that student loan repayments should continue being collected.

When you get to the end of the tax year, you will need to work out from the payslips from your old job how much your former employer deducted and add that figure to the amount shown on the form P60 from your new employer.

Again, let’s illustrate this with an example.

Example – Dave

Dave does some freelance designing websites, so he needs to fill in a tax return each year. But he also works part-time for an employer – he changes job in August 2020.

His old employer deducted Plan 1 student loan repayments as follows:

April 2020 – repayment of £25
May 2020 – repayment of £22
June 2020 – repayment of £22
July 2020 – repayment of £26

In May 2021, his new employer gives him his form P60 for the tax year 2020/21 showing total student loan repayments of £213, but this figure does not include the amounts above from Dave’s old job.

When Dave completes his 2020/21 tax return, he has to add together the amounts deducted at both employments to find the total deductions to put on the form.

The total is £308 which is £25 + £22 + £22 + £26 + £213.

The £308 deducted comes off the total student loan repayment he owes for the year.

If Dave had not kept his payslips, he should be able to contact his old employer to ask for the information. However, it is better to keep the information in the first place to avoid having to track it down later. He might also have problems getting hold of the details if, for example, his old employer had gone out of business.

There is information on GOV.UK on how to complete the student loan questions on paper and online Self Assessment tax returns.