Services · 06 · Self-employed & complex files
When your income does not fit a bank form.
Business owners, commission earners, investors and anyone a bank has called complicated. The file is presented the way a lender needs to read it.
06
What it is
Lenders want income they can document. If you write off expenses, pay yourself dividends, earn commission or own several properties, the income on your tax return can look smaller than what you actually live on.
The work is in the presentation: which income counts, which deductions a lender will add back, which lender's rules fit, and what each option costs. A decline at one lender is not a decline everywhere.
Who it is for
- Incorporated professionals and business owners
- Contractors and commission earners
- Investors with rental properties
- Newcomers and people with income from abroad
- Borrowers rebuilding damaged credit
How it works
Review
Two years of tax returns and, where it helps, business bank statements.
Position
The income calculation each lender category would accept, and the cost of each.
Lender match
Prime, alternative or private, chosen on total cost and on the way out.
Plan the next term
If you start with an alternative lender, we set the steps to move to a prime lender later.
Documents to have ready
A starting list. Your own checklist is built after the first conversation.
- T1 Generals and Notices of Assessment for the last two years
- Business financial statements or T2 returns, if incorporated
- Six to twelve months of business bank statements
- Articles of incorporation or a business licence
- Leases and tax returns for rental properties
- Proof that income tax is paid up to date
Common questions
How do lenders look at self-employed income?
Prime lenders usually average the income on your last two years of tax returns and Notices of Assessment, and may add back some business deductions. If your declared income is low, alternative lenders can use bank statements or a stated-income program, generally with a larger down payment and a higher rate.
I have been self-employed for less than two years. Can I qualify?
Sometimes. Some lenders accept a shorter history when you worked in the same field before, usually with a larger down payment or a higher rate.
What changes when I buy a rental property?
A property you will not live in needs at least 20% down and cannot be insured. Lenders count only part of the rent, and each has its own method, so the same property can qualify with one lender and not with another.
My bank declined me. What now?
A decline at one lender is not a decline everywhere. The usual reasons are income that is hard to document, debt ratios, credit history or the property itself. Each has a different fix: another lender, a different structure, a co-applicant, or a short-term solution with a plan to move back to a lower rate.
Talk it through with Hamed.
Eight questions, about a minute. Hamed reviews your answers and calls you, usually the same business day.