Agency contract

Thrugelmir

noisla wrote: »

The message I took was, that if I can get the figures to add up, and stick them in some boxes on the form, that's fine. The bank don't care where the figures come from or how they've been calculated. (Obviously I won't lie and I will adhere to ay rules written on the form or told to me by the bank.) There's not even a requirement for a UK *chartered* accountant to sign the form off - anyone with any sort of certificate in accounting will do.

Anyway, the proof is in the pudding. I'll post an update once I've applied, but it will take me a while to collate all the paperwork I need to draw up the accounts.

You may well be asked to produce form SA302 for a number of past years to substantiate your self employment income.

Vortex1

I wish you more success with Santander than I had with my ltd company. They did require full accounts (although this was because turnover of the company was in excess of £1m) and with hindsight I can see they were possibly not the best choice of lender to approach in my circumstance. It would appear I have had more success with Nationwide as they have slightly different criteria.

noisla

There's seems to be an inherent confusion (by me?!) between what "self employed" means. You can be legally self-employed while someone else sorts your tax via PAYE. In fact, this is surely as enviaged by the IR35 regulations. So you wouldn't necessarily have any self-assessment tax returns even if you are self-employed.

noisla

And I should add, that Santander use the legal definition in defining whether you are self-employed, but use the tax definition in calculating your income level. I guess this makes sense, as there isn't really a legal framework for calculating profits when you're not incorporated.

Thanks for the tip about Nationwide, I also bank with them, so I'll try them too.

Thrugelmir

noisla wrote: »

There's seems to be an inherent confusion (by me?!) between what "self employed" means. You can be legally self-employed while someone else sorts your tax via PAYE. In fact, this is surely as enviaged by the IR35 regulations. So you wouldn't necessarily have any self-assessment tax returns even if you are self-employed.

If employed by an umbrella company. Then you would have a P60 to substantiate your earnings. You wouldn't need to provide accounts.

noisla

Thrugelmir wrote: »

If employed by an umbrella company. Then you would have a P60 to substantiate your earnings. You wouldn't need to provide accounts.

Exactly what I thought. But I've spoken to several banks and mortgage advisers and as soon as I say that my contract is "self-employed", they say I need accounts. It's not hard to copy my P60s and P45s into a set of accounts, so I don't mind really, it just took a while to get to the bottom of it all.

kingstreet

Can't you just ask HMRC for copies of your SA302s for the last few years. Lenders tend to accept these as readily as certified accounts.

kingstreet

noisla wrote: »

There's seems to be an inherent confusion (by me?!) between what "self employed" means. You can be legally self-employed while someone else sorts your tax via PAYE. In fact, this is surely as enviaged by the IR35 regulations. So you wouldn't necessarily have any self-assessment tax returns even if you are self-employed.

You may not do your own tax returns, but your accountant or tax advisor uses the HMRC SA system to file for you if some of your earnings are assessable under Schedule D.

Goldiegirl

When I worked for a leading lender, we would consider agency staff.

The questions they we'd ask would concern the type of job, the skills involved, whether skills are portable, the job history and whether new contracts would be readily available at the end of the contract.

That was three years ago, so things could have changed.

The best thing to do would be to ask lenders about their current attitude, or get a good broker to ask on your behalf.

noisla

kingstreet wrote: »

You may not do your own tax returns, but your accountant or tax advisor uses the HMRC SA system to file for you if some of your earnings are assessable under Schedule D.

None of my earnings are assessable under Schedule D, which is the point. It is all Employment income (the old Schedule E, I believe).

If I were required to do a tax return, I would do it myself (as a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser of many years). I just need another accountant to sign off a mortgage form as obviously I can't self-certify.