Section II
Five documents, five questions
Handing over a folder and hoping is the slow way through this. Each document answers one specific question, and knowing which one lets you prepare the answer — which is usually the difference between a two-week assessment and a two-month one.
Business activity statements
Quarterly statements lodged with the ATO reporting GST collected and paid, and often PAYG instalments.
Read for
- Turnover, and whether it is stable, growing or falling across quarters
- Whether lodgements are up to date, which is a proxy for how the business is run
- Consistency against what the bank statements show arriving
How to prepare it
- Have four to six consecutive quarters, not a selection of good ones
- Lodge any outstanding quarters before applying, not during
- Be ready to explain a quarter that is materially out of line with the others
What spoils it: A gap. A missing quarter reads as either a lodgement problem or a hidden bad period, and the assessor cannot tell which.
Business bank statements
Six to twelve months of the trading account the business actually operates through.
Read for
- Whether declared turnover actually lands in the account
- How much is drawn out personally, and how regularly
- Dishonours, overdrawn periods and ATO payment arrangements
How to prepare it
- Keep business and personal transactions in separate accounts, well before you apply
- Have every account statement, not just the main one
- Be able to explain any large irregular deposit in one sentence
What spoils it: Mixed personal and business spending in one account. It makes turnover unverifiable and drags your personal living expenses into the assessment at their highest reading.
Accountant's declaration
A letter from a qualified accountant confirming that the income figure you have declared is consistent with what they know of the business.
Read for
- Whether a professional with visibility of the accounts will stand behind the figure
- The accountant's registration, which the lender may verify
- Whether the letter is specific or boilerplate
How to prepare it
- Give your accountant the exact figure and the period before asking for the letter
- Confirm the accountant holds the registration the lender requires
- Allow a week — these get requested at the last minute and hold up applications
What spoils it: Asking for a figure the accountant has not seen support for. A vague letter is worth less than no letter, because it invites a closer look at everything else.
Tax returns and notices of assessment
Lodged returns for you and every entity, plus the ATO notice confirming what was assessed.
Read for
- Declared taxable income, which is the starting figure before add-backs
- Whether the return and the notice agree
- Whether there is an outstanding liability or a payment arrangement
How to prepare it
- Lodge every outstanding year before applying — this is the single most common blocker
- Have the notice as well as the return; one without the other is incomplete
- Know which add-backs your accountant applied and why
What spoils it: Years of aggressive minimisation followed by an application to borrow against income you never declared. Lenders assess the declared figure, with only recognised add-backs.
Contracts and invoices
For contractors and labour-hire workers: the current contract, its history of renewal, and the invoices behind the payments.
Read for
- Continuity — same industry, same client base, minimal gaps
- Whether the rate in the contract matches what arrives in the account
- Notice periods and renewal history, as a proxy for stability
How to prepare it
- Keep the last two or three contracts, not just the current one
- Have a short written explanation ready for any gap between engagements
- Reconcile invoices to bank deposits before an assessor has to
What spoils it: Gaps that look like unemployment on a statement with nothing to explain them. The gap is rarely the problem; the silence around it is.
General information about how Australian lenders assess self-employed income. Lender policy differs and changes, and tax and lodgement rules are set by the ATO; each page links to the body that sets the rule. Reviewed 17 August 2026.