Self Employed - Can I do better?

Connoisseurus_Rex

I work for an overseas company so I have a full-time rolling contract that has been in effect for 3+ years. I invoice them each month for a fixed amount and do self-assessment tax returns. My other half is in full time employment. 

First conversation with a broker yielded a rough estimate of what we could borrow. With either a 10% or 15% deposit, it's working out at about 4.6x our earnings. But the issue here is my "earnings" are being based on the average of the two latest tax returns. I've had a significant pay rise recently, so "earnings based on 2 years tax returns" is nearly a third less than what I'm actually earning now. This puts a pretty big dent in what we can borrow and is really going to restrict what kind of properties we can look at.

My question is, can I realistically do any better? I know it's a quirk of the system but it seems crazy that an employee earning £15k less than me could borrow more right now. Are there any brokers/lenders that won't just see "self employed" and recognise I have a contract with fixed income.

ACG

There are lenders who will work from 1 years accounts.
Whether they will actually accept your income is another matter, I think they will but it will depend on the quirks of the case.

K_S

Connoisseurus_Rex said:

I work for an overseas company so I have a full-time rolling contract that has been in effect for 3+ years. I invoice them each month for a fixed amount and do self-assessment tax returns. My other half is in full time employment. 

First conversation with a broker yielded a rough estimate of what we could borrow. With either a 10% or 15% deposit, it's working out at about 4.6x our earnings. But the issue here is my "earnings" are being based on the average of the two latest tax returns. I've had a significant pay rise recently, so "earnings based on 2 years tax returns" is nearly a third less than what I'm actually earning now. This puts a pretty big dent in what we can borrow and is really going to restrict what kind of properties we can look at.

My question is, can I realistically do any better? I know it's a quirk of the system but it seems crazy that an employee earning £15k less than me could borrow more right now. Are there any brokers/lenders that won't just see "self employed" and recognise I have a contract with fixed income.

@connoisseurus_Rex Based on the limited info in your post, with respect to mainstream lenders, I can't think of anyone who would consider your income as 'employed'. 

Depending on the evidence (as per what the lender would want to see) stacking up, a couple of specialist lenders might take a view on considering it as employed income but the rates are going to be higher and affordability calculations might actually be a bit stricter so not entirely a given that you'd be a lot better off.

Your best shot is probably as per what ACG said, getting a lender who will look at most recent year figures for affordability.

As soon as the income originates overseas, it makes the case a bit quirky as different lenders will look at things differently.