Free preparation pack

Self-Employed Mortgage Evidence Preparation Pack

An evidence organiser for sole traders, partners and company directors: what to gather, how to describe your trading structure once and clearly, and how to separate business from personal so nobody has to guess.

Time needed: Around 45 minutes, plus time to request anything from your accountant or HMRC.

Read the full guide

Use your browser's print dialog to print this pack or save it as a PDF.

Who this is for

Anyone whose income comes from their own business, in any structure, who wants tax records, accounts and banking evidence in a predictable order before an application is discussed.

What this pack cannot do

This pack does not calculate your income, tell you which figure a lender would use, or say how many years of trading you need. Those depend on structure, accounting treatment and lender policy, and are advice questions.

Evidence gathering checklist

Tick only documents you actually hold. Note the date you requested anything still outstanding.

Tax calculations for the most recent years available to youThey are the standard record of declared income for self-employed applicants.
Tax year overviews matching those yearsThey corroborate the calculations from HMRC's own records.
Finalised accounts, where your structure produces themAccounts show trading performance rather than only declared personal income.
Business bank statements for a recent, continuous periodThey show trading activity in real time rather than in summary.
Personal bank statements for the same periodThey show how income reaches you and what your commitments are.
Evidence of how you take incomeSalary, drawings, dividends or a mix — the mechanism matters for evidencing.
Accountant's details, if you use oneVerification is quicker when the contact detail is right first time.
Records for any second income streamEmployment, property or other self-employment alongside the main business.
A note of anything unusual in the period, with datesOne factual sentence prepared calmly is worth more than an explanation improvised later.

Trading structure record

Write this once, accurately, and reuse it. Most repeated questions come from an unclear structure description.

Legal structure: Sole trader, partnership, limited company, or a combination.
Trading name and, if applicable, registered company name: Keep both if they differ.
Date trading began: The date you actually started, not the date you registered, if they differ — note both.
Your ownership or profit share: As a percentage, and whether it has changed.
How you take income: Salary, drawings, dividends, or a mix. State the usual pattern.
Accounting year end: It affects which records line up with which tax year.
Who prepares your accounts and tax return: You, an accountant, or both.
Other income sources: List each with its type.

Business and personal separation worksheet

Answer honestly for yourself. This is the area most often tidied up too late, and it is entirely within your control.

Do business and personal money currently go through separate accounts? If not, what would it take to separate them?
Which transactions on your personal statements are actually business costs?
Which regular payments would an outside reader misread, and what is the true explanation?
Does your declared income match the pattern visible in your statements? Where it does not, why?
What was unusual in the last twelve months — a one-off project, a quiet period, an equipment purchase?

Things you may not know yet

Flag anything here that applies and raise it early rather than late.

Which income figure would be considered for your structure.
How many years of records would be expected in your case.
How a rising or falling trend in your figures would be read.
How retained profit in a company is treated, if that applies to you.
Whether a change of structure part-way through your trading history complicates evidencing.

Questions for a qualified adviser

These are advice questions. Written down, they take minutes instead of a whole appointment.

Which of my income figures would you expect to be used, and why?
Does my trading history need anything else evidenced before an application is realistic?
Given everything above about self-employed income, what would you want to see before you would consider an application ready to submit?
Which of my documents would you expect a lender to question, and how would you present it?
Is there anything in my situation where lenders differ enough that it changes who I should apply to?
What would you advise me to do first, and what can safely wait?
How long would you expect my preparation to take from here?
What should I avoid doing in the meantime, and why?

One-page adviser handover summary

Print this and take it with you, along with your document list.

What I am trying to do: One sentence: buy, move, remortgage, or find out whether now is realistic.
Where I am in preparation: Just started / gathering documents / documents ready / ready to talk to an adviser.
The three facts an adviser needs first: Write the three things you would want them to know before anything else.
Documents I already have: List by name only. Do not attach anything to this page.
Documents I still need: Include who you have to ask, and how long they usually take.
Things I cannot explain yet: Anything you know will be asked about but cannot yet answer confidently.
My questions, in priority order: Take these to the appointment written down.

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