An Employment Verification Letter is a form used to verify the income/salary and employment history of a previous or current or prospective employee. As a prospective new employer, you may request an Employment Verification Letter to authenticate that an individual has a steady flow of income and their employment status is secure. You might also be a bank or landlord for you to request an Employment Verification Letter.
An individual would be expected to submit the form when requested to do so by you. As their new employer to be, you might want to confirm the truth about an individual’s previous salary and position. In the case of a landlord, you may require this form from an individual who wants to rent an apartment. Also, as a bank, you may require this form from an individual who is seeking a mortgage.
As the prospective new employer, you will probably need an Employment Verification Letter from your prospective new employee for legitimacy purposes. You should therefore be aware of what is needed from you to ensure a successful verification of that individual.
An Employment Verification Letter is also known by other names:
- Letter of Employment
- Employment Confirmation Letter
- Proof of Income Letter
- Proof of Employment Letter
- Salary Verification Letter
- Work Verification Letter
- Income Verification Letter
Documents to Ask for Employment Verification
When verifying an employment verification letter, you can check if it has been notarized to increase its authenticity. Apart from the form being acknowledged by the notary public, you can also request proof-of-income documents in order to substantiate the Employment Verification Letter.
The documents required as a proof of employment verification letter are as follows:
Paystubs
This is part of a paycheck and contains details of the employee’s pay. It is ideal to request a paystub from a recent paycheck. It would be more authentic and consistent if the prospective new employee submitted several paystubs.
Tax returns (1040)
This document will offer you details about the annual income tax return of the prospective new employee. It has details of their income and deductions to determine the amount of tax they should pay. Information about income makes it an essential proof document, especially in the case where the employee is self-employed.
Wage and tax statements (W-2)
This document will provide you with details about an employee’s salary and the amount of taxes withheld from their paychecks. It is therefore used as proof of income.
Social security proof of income
This document is also known as a budget letter and will help to show you the employee’s stability when it comes to their income. It shows that an employee does not receive or apply for any benefits.
A workers’ compensation letter
This document is also an essential one among the proof-of-income documents. It highlights the employee’s wage loss and benefits in case they cannot work or require medical care due to a work-related injury.
Bank statements
This document is most commonly used as proof of income by self-employed individuals. A bank statement can either be downloaded or accessed from the bank by the employee.
Credit report
In case you still need more information to verify the candidate’s information, you may resort to obtaining a credit report from the individual. This can be done by first extracting the candidate’s information through a background check authorization form and then utilizing the information to perform a lookup through Equifax, Experian, or Transunion.
How to Verify a Proof of Employment Letter
As the new employer, you may want to verify the authenticity of the income verification letter you have received from a prospective new employee. Verifying a Proof of Employment Letter is done in order to avoid any false claims. The verification process of a Proof of Employment Letter includes seeking the mentioned company or business details from the Secretary of State’s office. Here, you will be able to confirm if the details provided to you about the company are correct and true.
The next step in the verification process involves calling the previous or current employer of your prospective new employee. This way, you can confirm if that employer actually wrote and signed the Proof of Employment Letter. Finally, you can request proof-of-income documents either from the previous employer of your prospective new employee or the IRS.
Following are the steps you can take to verify the employment:
Step 1: Check business entity status – By state
When you receive an Employment Verification Letter as requested, you will have to check and confirm the validity of the mentioned business entity. Also, you will have to confirm the mentioned employer’s signature and details. Every state has its own Secretary of State’s office that you can use to look up the details of the company or business.
With the links below, you can learn about all the details that you can search about the business or company to verify the authenticity of the details on the Employment Verification Letter:
Step 2: Verify details from an employment verification letter
These are the items that you will verify on the employment verification letter:
Current employer: You should confirm the details of the individual’s employer. Your prospective new employee must provide correct details about their employer and also include contact details you can use to reach them for any further verification.
Occupation/title: The title or occupation that the employee claims to have or had in the Employment Verification Letter must be must also be verified by you.
Employment start date: Also, you should verify if the employment start date mentioned in the Employment Verification Letter is true for that particular prospective new employee.
Pay: The amount of income the employee is making is also an important detail that you will need to verify as their prospective new employer. This detail will also need verification by a landlord before they agree to rent an apartment to an employee. A landlord will want to know if their salary or pay can meet the monthly payment.
Status (Part time/full time): Finally, your prospective employee’s employment status on the employment verification letter is also another item that you will verify. By verifying this item, you will be able to know whether the employee’s employment status is part-time or full-time. Also, a bank will want to know the truth about this detail before offering them a loan or mortgage.
Conclusion
Before an individual can secure a job, as a prospective new employer to such an individual, you can reach out to them and request an Employment Verification Letter to validate the employee’s income and employment status. Remember to authenticate all the items that require verification on the Employment (Income) Verification Letter.
Also, it is necessary to either receive a notarized letter or request proof-of-income documents for validity purposes. You can choose to call their previous or current employer to confirm if they are the ones that wrote and signed the letter. You can also access our Free Employment (Income) Verification Letter Templates today and make the verification process faster and easier to accomplish.