Self-Employed and Knocked Back, Then Approved

Two years into running their own trade business, with strong cashflow and a healthy bank balance, they went to their own bank for a loan. The bank said no. On paper, their most recent taxable income looked too low to support the loan they wanted, because like a lot of business owners they legitimately manage their tax position.

Many lenders only look at your latest personal tax return. For a self-employed borrower whose return understates their real cashflow, that single number can sink an application that should sail through. The income was there, it just was not visible the way the first bank looked at it.

We matched them to a lender set up to assess self-employed income properly, using their business activity statements and two years of financials rather than one tax return. We presented the application cleanly, explained the income to the lender up front, and structured it to sit comfortably inside their serviceability.