Payslip
A payslip (bulletin de salaire in France) is the document that employers are legally required to provide to each employee upon payment of their salary. It details gross pay, social security contributions, tax deductions, and net pay. In KYC and creditworthiness verification procedures, it serves as essential proof of income. In the UK, it is governed by the Employment Rights Act; in the US, the equivalent is a pay stub.
The French payslip is governed by the Labour Code, which mandates specific entries: employer and employee identity, applicable collective agreement, work period and hours, breakdown of employer and employee contributions, net taxable amount, net pay, and since 2019, income tax withholding. Digital payslips have been permitted since 2017 with employee consent.
In identity and income verification procedures, payslips are systematically requested by banks (loan applications), landlords (rental applications), credit agencies, and government bodies. Verifying their authenticity is critical as payslips are among the most commonly forged documents, with modifications typically targeting net salary, employer name, or employment dates.
Document verification solutions like CheckFile.ai enable automatic analysis of payslips using artificial intelligence. They verify mathematical consistency between gross pay, contributions, and net amounts (fraudsters often make calculation errors), check for mandatory information, detect digital manipulation, and can cross-reference data with employer registries to validate the issuing company.
Regulations
Real-world examples
- 1.A bank requires the last three payslips from a mortgage applicant to assess repayment capacity and verify income stability before approving the loan.
- 2.A landlord uses an automated verification solution to analyze tenant applicants' payslips, detecting an inconsistency between the displayed net salary and the declared contributions on a forged document.
- 3.A staffing agency verifies a candidate's most recent payslip to confirm their professional experience and salary level before offering a temporary assignment.