Self-employed
Your accountant makes you look poor. We translate.
Every write-off that saves you tax shrinks the income a bank sees. A third of our practice is self-employed borrowers: the job is matching your real earning power to the lender that knows how to read it.
The math of the problem
A worked example, start to finish
Meet an illustrative electrician, incorporated, grossing ~$240,000. After expenses, capital cost allowance on the van, and paying herself tax-efficiently, her line 15000 reads $87,000 and $95,000 over the last two years.
A strict lender sees the two-year average: $91,000. A lender that applies a 15% program gross-up sees $104,650, and one that also adds back the $9,000 of CCA sees roughly $115,000.
Same person. Same tax returns. At a 39% GDS ceiling under the stress test, that spread is worth well over $100,000 of purchase price. The lender choice IS the qualification.
Figures illustrative; add-back and gross-up policies vary by lender and program, Copperline Mortgage Co. Inc. (fictional).
“I ran a contracting business for seven years before this desk. I know exactly what it's like to be profitable on paper you can't show a bank.”
Marcus Hale · Mortgage Broker · meet the team
The three routes
From cleanest to most expensive: in that order
Route 01
Prime, with the income read properly
Two+ years self-employed, reasonable line 15000
Lenders average your last two Notices of Assessment. Some stop there; the good ones add back legitimate paper deductions: capital cost allowance, business-use-of-home, and gross up eligible program income by 15%. Same rates as any salaried borrower.
Route 02
Insured self-employed programs
Strong file, under 20% down
Default insurers run self-employed programs that accept alternative income proof (bank statements, contracts, invoices) when the tax return understates the business. The premium is slightly higher; the rate stays prime.
Route 03
Alternative (B) lenders
Under two years in business, or aggressive write-offs
B lenders read 6–12 months of business bank statements instead of tax returns. Expect a rate roughly 1% higher and a 1% lender fee, and on these files a brokerage fee applies too, disclosed in writing up front. Often used as a 1–2 year bridge back to prime.
We always try the routes in order, and when route three is the honest answer, you'll get the full cost picture (rate, lender fee, our fee) in writing before anything is submitted. How we're paid, including on B files.
Your checklist
What self-employed files need
- Two years of T1 Generals with statements of business activities
- Two years of Notices of Assessment (and proof no tax is owing)
- Incorporated: two years of corporate financials + articles of incorporation
- 6–12 months of business bank statements (alternative routes)
- Contracts, invoices, or client letters that show income continuity
- The usual: ID, down-payment history, debts, property details
If you're applying next year
The 12-month head start
The single most valuable conversation is the one a year early, with your accountant and us at the same table (or email thread). Sometimes declaring $15,000 more income for one tax year costs a few thousand in tax and unlocks six figures of prime borrowing. Sometimes it doesn't, and a B-lender bridge is genuinely cheaper. It's arithmetic, not ideology: we'll show both columns and let the columns decide.
Book the early conversationBring the messy version.
Incorporated, seasonal, three contracts and a side business, two years of weird: we've read worse, and the wizard has a self-employed lane.