Self-employed income and mortgage

AliLSmith

Hello - new to the forum.
My husband and I are trying to get a remortgage but my self-employment status is becoming a problem. It seems they calculate using my Net Profit - which of course is 'tough on self-employed' as Martin Lewis' mortgage guidebook says.
So obviously in previous years I've legitimately claimed my allowable business expenses.
Could I for the next few returns simply claim significantly less expenses, take a hit on paying more tax, in order to get the mortgage we need? As long as we can genuinely still afford our payments (we're in shared ownership so our rent would go down) is there a reason not to do this?
Be grateful for your advice and experiences.

ACG

That is technically Mortgage Fraud, you are artificially inflating your income in order to get a Mortgage.

AliLSmith

Ok good to know. I thought as the tax return says 'would you like to claim expenses' that claiming your expenses are optional?

ACG

Im not an accountant so not sure how it is worded or what is meant by certain questions and how to interpret them - that question may be intended as "do you want to declare your expenses now or at a later date?". I am taking you at face value for that question as I have no idea whether it exists or not.

But in any event, it is probably more to do with your reasoning behind why you are not wanting to declare expenses.

AliLSmith

Ok thank you for this.

amnblog

Might be better all round to simply get your turnover up.

AliLSmith

Ha! That's me just trying to run my business Amnblog! I wish ; )