Skip to main content
Before You Apply

Income · 7 min read

Company director mortgage evidence: separate salary, dividends and company profit

In short

If you run your own limited company, several legitimate numbers describe the same finances: the salary you take through payroll, the dividends paid to you as a shareholder, and the company's own profit. None of them is the wrong number. FCA rules (MCOB 11.6.8) require a lender to obtain adequate evidence of each element of income it relies on, but they do not say which of these figures a lender must use, or how to combine them — that is lender policy. Preparation here is not choosing the best-looking number. It is separating each figure, attaching it to the record that evidences it, and noting the dates.

Useful next step

Build my document checklist

A printable starting list of the paperwork commonly requested.

Build my document checklist

What this page cannot do

  • It cannot tell you which figure a lender will use, or whether profit is added to anything.
  • It cannot calculate affordability or how much you could borrow.
  • It cannot recommend a lender, a product or an adviser.
  • It cannot tell you to change your salary or dividends — that is a tax and business decision for your accountant.
  • Nothing here is a mortgage recommendation or a suitability judgement (see FCA PERG 4.6).

Who this is for

  • Directors and shareholders of their own limited company
  • Contractors working through their own company
  • Anyone whose personal income and company profit are different figures
  • Anyone who has been asked for "your income" and is not sure which number is meant

Your director income evidence map

Five groups of records, each describing something different. Separating them is the whole job.

Salary through payroll

  • GOV.UK: salary taken from your own company is handled through payroll.
  • Records that exist for pay and tax can include a P60, P45 and P11D.
  • Note the salary level and how often it is paid.
  • This describes your personal employment income from the company only.

Dividends and how they are declared

  • GOV.UK: dividends are payments to shareholders, made from profits after Corporation Tax, where available profits permit.
  • They must be declared formally, with minutes kept of the decision.
  • A dividend voucher is prepared for each payment, showing the date, company, shareholder and amount.
  • Vouchers and minutes are the records that evidence what was paid and when.

Company statutory accounts and profit

  • GOV.UK: statutory accounts are prepared from the company's financial records.
  • They generally include a balance sheet, a profit and loss account and notes, subject to size and exemption rules.
  • Note the accounting period end, and whether the latest accounts are final or draft.
  • A company is legally separate from its owners, so company profit is not the same thing as your personal income.

Personal tax evidence

  • SA302 tax calculation — HMRC provides evidence of earnings for the last 4 years once Self Assessment has been sent.
  • Tax year overview for the same years.
  • Not printable until 72 hours after sending the return.
  • HMRC says to check your mortgage provider accepts self-printed copies.

Role, shareholding and dates

  • Your job title and what you actually do in the company.
  • Your shareholding percentage, and whether there are other shareholders.
  • Incorporation date and the date trading began, if they differ.
  • The company's accounting period end and the personal tax year may not align — hold both.

Facts only. Every row says what a record describes. None of them says a lender must accept it, or that it is the figure that will be used.

Key points

Personal income and company profit are separate figures

A company is legally separate from its owners. What you draw personally and what the company earns are different numbers with different records. Most first-conversation confusion starts here.

Salary and dividends are evidenced differently

Salary runs through payroll. Dividends are shareholder payments from profits after Corporation Tax, formally declared, minuted, and evidenced by a voucher per payment.

Evidence must fit each element relied on

MCOB 11.6.8 requires evidence of a type and for a period adequate to support each element of income a lender takes into account. So the elements need to be separable — which is exactly what an evidence map gives you.

"Is retained profit added?" is a lender question

Whether profit left in the company is taken into account, and how, differs between lenders. We do not publish lender criteria, so this belongs on your list of adviser questions.

Do not restructure your pay for a mortgage

Changing how you take money out of your company has tax and business consequences, and does not determine what any lender does. Tax consequences are for an accountant or tax adviser; the mortgage question is for an FCA-authorised adviser.

Dates matter as much as figures

Accounting period end, filing dates and the personal tax year may not line up. Knowing which period a figure belongs to stops two correct numbers looking contradictory.

Exceptions and things that vary

  • With more than one shareholder, your share of dividends and your role need stating explicitly.
  • Some companies qualify for accounting exemptions, so what the accounts contain can vary by size.
  • If you were employed before incorporating, those records exist separately — note the dates.
  • Nothing here says how salary, dividends or retained profit will be treated. That is not a question we can answer.

How to work through it

  1. Separate the three figures

    Salary, dividends, company profit. Write each on its own line rather than as one combined number.

  2. Attach a record to each

    Payroll and pay records for salary; dividend vouchers and minutes for dividends; statutory accounts for company profit.

  3. Download your personal tax evidence

    SA302 tax calculation and tax year overview for each year available.

  4. Note the structure and the dates

    Role, shareholding, incorporation and trading dates, accounting period end, and whether the latest accounts are final.

  5. Take the map to an adviser

    Ask a suitably qualified FCA-authorised mortgage adviser which elements they need evidenced and over what period. Only they can tell you.

Illustrative example (not a real case)

Imagine a sole director who takes a modest salary through payroll and periodic dividends, with some profit left in the company. Their personal tax documents show one figure; the company accounts show another. Neither is wrong. Setting out salary, dividends and profit on separate lines, each next to the record that evidences it, with the shareholding and the period dates, means the conversation starts from facts instead of from a number that looks self-contradictory. Illustrative only.

Illustrative only. Figures and situations in examples are made up to show a method. They are not typical, not a benchmark and not a prediction of any outcome.

What not to assume

  • Do not assume salary plus dividends is the figure that will be used.
  • Do not assume retained profit is, or is not, taken into account.
  • Do not assume changing your salary or dividends improves a mortgage outcome. It has tax and business consequences — ask an accountant or tax adviser, and ask an FCA-authorised mortgage adviser about the mortgage.
  • Do not assume every lender asks for the same company documents.
  • Do not overlook the formal dividend records: GOV.UK says dividends must be declared and recorded, with minutes kept and a voucher prepared for each payment. Which records a lender then asks for is that lender's policy.
  • Do not assume this page predicts an outcome.

Your director income evidence snapshot

Write this out yourself before a first appointment. No figures need to go anywhere near this website — nothing you write is sent to us.

  • Company incorporation date, and trading start date if different:
  • My role, and my shareholding percentage:
  • Other shareholders, if any:
  • Accounting period end date:
  • Salary pattern, and the pay records I hold (P60 / P45 / P11D):
  • Dividends taken, and whether I have vouchers and minutes for each:
  • Latest statutory accounts: final / draft / not yet prepared, and the period they cover
  • SA302 and tax year overview: years I have downloaded
  • Any mismatch between accounting period, tax year and filing dates:
  • Questions I want to ask an adviser:

A factual record of what exists and where. It is not an assessment, a calculation or an indication of what any lender would do.

Questions for a qualified adviser

We cannot answer these for you, and we do not introduce or recommend advisers. Take them to a suitably qualified FCA-authorised mortgage adviser of your own choosing.

  • Which elements of my company income would you need evidenced, and over what period?
  • What company documentation would you want alongside my personal tax records?
  • How would you like my shareholding and role recorded?
  • Does it matter whether my latest accounts are final or draft?
  • Is there anything my accountant should prepare before we go further?

Related reading

Sources

Primary and official sources used for the factual information on this page.

Written by

Before You Apply editorial

Written by the publisher's editorial function, not by a named individual and not by a mortgage adviser. Before You Apply is not FCA authorised.

Editorial accountability

Published by Before You Apply, which is responsible for this guide. See About, editorial policy and corrections.

  • Last fact-checked 2026-09-12
  • Next review due 2027-03-12

Disclosure: this guide is educational. Before You Apply receives no payment for mentioning any lender, product or firm. Any named examples are used for factual context, not ranking or recommendation.

Keep reading

All preparation guides are grouped by topic in the guides index.

All preparation guides