In most of the cases salary certificate issues without a format. Salary Certificate letter must contain some necessary information related to an employee's salary break-up including the tenure. Generally, Salary certificate uses for submitting to financial institutions sanctioning loan request made by salaried employee. It will give a basic assessment of an employee's repayment capacity prior sanctioning loan amount.
What Is Salary Certificate?
A Salary Certificate is an Official document that must contain an employee's monthly total earnings, monthly total deductions, their break-ups and a summary of net salary received during the month. It should capable to express the financial position of the employee along with identity details, position and remaining years to retirement.
You are advised to read the differences between salary certificate and salary certificate letter here.
Break-up of salary certificate shall be in the following headers:
Gross Pay and Allowances (to be shown on Certificate of Salary):
1. Under this head, salary certificate form shows the amounts an employee is entitled to get, from the employer.
2. Salary certificate shows the Gross Salary amount, which will be the sum total of all the figures.

Deductions (to be shown on Certificate of Salary):
1. Under the Deductions head, salary certificate letter shows all the figures of sum that are required to be deducted from the salary, like Income Tax and other taxes to be deducted at source also known as TDS, installments of loans / advances repayable by the employee, provident fund contributions etc.
2. At the end of the section of the salary certificate letter, show the sum total of the deductions.
And finally, the Salary certificate must have net salary to be paid to the employee, which is the Gross Salary minus the Total Deductions.
Attached image given explains the format of salary certificate issued for a car loan from bank. This Certificate of Salary shows gross earnings and deductions but not shown net earnings separately.
A sample Salary certificate image shown below:

The image below shows how essential data including photo to be shown in a proper Certificate of Salary:

This sample Certificate of Salary letter shows Gross earnings, Total Deductions and Net Salary. Other important data shown in this format are: self attested photograph of the employee, designation, addresses, scale of pay, date of birth, date of joining, date of retirement and whether permanent or temporary. This Salary certificate can be considered as comprehensive and ideal sample salary certificate for any purpose.
Occasions that Salary Certificate Required
When you apply for a bank loan, most of the banks ask you to produce some of the basic documents along with the loan application in which the important documents are: KYC documents (photo, address proof / Ration Card, ID proof, Passport), certificate of salary or salary certificate / latest salary slip showing all deductions and TDS certificate - Form 16 in case of you are a salaried person.
Some of the offices have restrictions to issue certificate of salary more than once in a financial year. In such cases, photocopy of last certificate of salary, 3 months salary slips and TDS certificate would be the solution.

Do you want Salary certificate formats that can be edited as you like? Here you can download MS word (.doc) and Excel (.xls) Files for making your Salary certificate.
A simple Salary Certificate format is given below:
This is to certify that Mr./Mrs. - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - is working with us since "month dd, yyyy" and presently designated as - - -- - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - -- - --, his/her present residential address as per our records is - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - -- and his/her salary emoluments for period of January 01, 2011 to March 31, 2011 are as mentioned as below:
Gross Emoluments
1. Basic Salary .......................: xxxx.xx
2. HRA ...............................: xxxx.xx
3. Allowance 1 .......................: xxxx.xx
4. Allowance 2 .......................: xxxx.xx
5. Special Allowance ..................: xxxx.xx
6. Conveyance .........................: xxxx.xx
---------------------------------
Gross Salary.................................: xxxxx.xx
Deductions
1. PF .................................: xxxx.xx
2. Loan 1 .............................: xxxx.xx
3. Loan 2 .............................: xxxx.xx
4. Others .............................: xxxx.xx
---------------- ---------------
Total Deductions ..........................: xxxxx.xx
Net pay (Gross salary - Deductions) ............................: xxxxx.xx
In addition to above Mr. / Mrs. is entitled to bonus of Rs. ----------- and LTA of Rs. ------------. We hereby declare that we have deducted income tax of Rs. ------------- from Mr. / Mrs. ---------------------- --------------------- emoluments and same has been deposited in ------------------------ Bank branch.
This salary certificate is being issued to him on his ---------------------- ----------------- request.
For company name
Authorised Signatory
Another Salary Certificate Format Having More Details:
Salary Certificate
The salary and other relevant particulars in respect of (Name) ......................................... (Designation) ....................................... (Department/Office) ................................. are certified, as furnished, below:
Date of birth: ..... (employee's date of birth) .....
Date of entry into service: ......(employee's start date of the present job).....
Date of retirement: .....(employee's retirement date)......
Scale of pay: ......(employee's present pay scale).....
Monthly Earnings (Rs.)
Basic pay: ... (employee's basic pay)...
special pay: ... (employee's special pay)...
Dearness Allowance: ... (employee's DA)...
HRA: ... (employee's HRA)...
CCM: ... (employee's CCM)...
Interim Relief: ... (employee's IR)...
Other Allowance: ... (employee's other pay)...
.................. ..................
.................. ..................
.................. ..................
Total Rs.: ..................
Monthly Deductions Recoveries (Rs.)
PF Subscription: .... (employee's PF subscription) ...
PF Loan: ... (employee's PF loan) ...
LIC: ... (employee's insurance premiums) ...
Welfare fund subscription: ... (employee's Welfare fund subscription) ...
Welfare fund loan: ... (employee's Welfare fund loan) ...
MCA: ... (employee's MCA) ...
HBA/Rent and water charges: ... (employee's HBA/Rent and water charges) ...
Co-op. Society:
Before applying for a bank loan, read Salary Certificate FAQ in order to get various in-depth options from real life situations.