Newsletter issue - October 2011.
As an employer you are required to collect repayments of student loans your employees took out through the Student Loan Company (SLC) while they were studying, during years after September 1998.
You are told to start making SLC deductions by a form SL1 from the Tax Office (HMRC). HMRC is currently tidying up the data it holds on employers who collect student loan repayments. You may receive an unexpected SL1 notice for a current employee from whom you are already collecting SLC deductions. Alternatively you may receive SL1 notices for employees who have left your employment. In both cases you should simply file the SL1 notices and take no further action.
If you have a SLC loan yourself and are self-employed, the SLC loan repayments should be collected through your annual self-assessed tax bill, which is generally split over three payment dates. You need to tell us about your student loan, so we can ensure the right boxes are completed on your tax return form.
If your self-employed profits are less than £15,000 per year, you are not required to make any SLC repayments. This also applies if your salary is under £15,000 or you have a number of jobs from which you earn under that threshold in each.