Your Home Finance
Company director? Your payslip is the smallest part of your borrowing power.
Dividends, share of net profit and retained earnings can change the income figure a lender uses — often dramatically. It depends entirely on which lender reads your accounts.
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How does your company pay you?
How your case is assessed
How lenders assess company director income
The same set of accounts can produce three very different income figures depending on the lender's basis. Knowing which basis applies before you apply is most of the work.
Salary plus dividends
The most common basis, and usually the least flattering for a tax-efficient director. It counts only what you've drawn — so profit deliberately left in the company is invisible to the calculation.
Salary plus share of net profit
A meaningful group of lenders will use salary plus your percentage share of post-corporation-tax net profit, whether or not you drew it. For a director who reinvests, this is frequently the difference between declined and comfortable.
Retained profit and shareholding
A smaller number of lenders will consider accumulated retained profit on the balance sheet. Expectations vary — many want a controlling or 100% shareholding, and an accountant's confirmation that drawing the profit wouldn't damage the business.
Which years, and which direction
Two years of accounts is typical; some lenders accept one. If profits rose, most will use the latest year. If profits fell, expect the lower figure or a two-year average — and expect underwriters to ask why.
You don't need to restructure how you pay yourself to find out where you stand — we work the figures against real lender criteria before any hard search.
Specialist insight
Not every lender reads company accounts the same way
Falling profits · one year's accounts · minority shareholding
Higher challenge
Narrower panels · retained profit rarely considered · the story behind the numbers needs preparing with your accountant before an application goes anywhere.
Stable or rising profit · clear shareholding · accounts up to date
More lender choice
Broader high-street and specialist panels · net-profit and retained-profit bases become available, often at mainstream rates.
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Your adviser
Jay Sabine
Expert mortgage adviser specialising in complex cases including adverse credit, self-employed borrowers, and first-time buyers. All advice is tailored to your individual circumstances.
Content reviewed: 3 August 2026
CeMAP awarded by The London Institute of Banking & Finance. Cert CII (MP) awarded by the Chartered Insurance Institute.
Specialist in company director and complex income mortgages
Helping clients with complex credit histories for over 30 years · CeMAP, Cert CII (MP) · FCA regulated
“Directors spend years arranging their affairs to pay less tax, then meet a lender that reads the same accounts and sees someone on £12,000 a year. Both readings are correct. Only one of them borrows.”
Reviewed by Jay Sabine · Mortgage adviser · 30+ years' experience
Lived experience
Mistakes we repeatedly see
Not theory — patterns that keep showing up when directors are assessed on drawings alone.
Optimising tax without checking the mortgage cost
Keeping drawings low is sound tax planning and expensive borrowing planning. The fix usually isn't to draw more — it's to use a lender that counts net profit. But that decision has to come before the accounts are finalised, not after.
Assuming retained profit always counts
Some lenders consider it, most don't, and the ones that do attach conditions on shareholding and business health. Building a purchase budget around retained profit before confirming a lender will use it leads to a collapsed offer late on.
Applying with accounts that aren't finalised
Draft accounts and unfiled returns create underwriter queries at exactly the wrong moment. Where a year-end is imminent, the sequence of accounts, tax calculation and application matters more than speed.
Not explaining a dip in profit
A large equipment purchase, a director's pension contribution or a one-off cost can depress net profit for a year. Left unexplained, it reads as a business in decline. Evidenced properly by your accountant, it's often added back.
Real client scenarios
Real mortgage journeys
Based on genuine cases we've helped with. Personal details have been changed to protect privacy.
£14k salary on paper — net profit told the truth
- £14k salary
- Profit retained in company
- Net-profit basis
- Borrowing more than doubled
Situation
Sole director of a profitable trading company, paying himself a small salary and modest dividends while reinvesting the rest.
Challenge
Two high-street lenders assessed him on salary and dividends and offered a figure nowhere near the family home he was buying.
What changed
We moved to a lender that uses salary plus the director's share of post-tax net profit, supported by two years of finalised accounts and an accountant's reference.
Outcome
Offer issued at more than double the earlier figure, without changing how he pays himself.
Why it worked
His income had never been the problem. The basis on which it was measured was. Choosing the lender before applying was the whole advice.
Profits dipped — and the dip was explained
- Profit down 30%
- One-off capital spend
- Added back
- Latest-year basis
Situation
Two directors buying a larger home, with the most recent year's net profit well down on the year before.
Challenge
On the face of the accounts the business looked to be shrinking, and lenders were defaulting to the lower recent figure.
What changed
We had the accountant confirm the fall was a single large capital purchase and a one-off pension contribution, then placed the case with a lender willing to add both back.
Outcome
Assessed close to the stronger underlying trading position, and the purchase proceeded.
Why it worked
Underwriters can accept an explanation. They can't invent one. The evidence went in with the application, not after a query.
What happens after you get in touch
From first contact to a clear answer
What happens when you get in touch — no hard search at this stage.
- 1
We look at the whole picture — salary, dividends, net profit, shareholding and the last two years' direction (no hard search)
- 2
Jay works out which assessment basis produces the truest figure for your accounts
- 3
We discuss the realistic route and, where useful, what your accountant should confirm
- 4
If proceeding: Agreement in Principle → application → completion
Reassurance
- Free initial review — before any hard credit search
- We identify the assessment basis before you approach a lender, not after a decline
- Wrong lender first hurts more than waiting — we guide the sequence
Before you enquire
What we'll ask you on the first call
Straightforward questions — no hard credit search at this stage.
- Your salary and dividends for the last two tax years
- Net profit before and after corporation tax, and how much you've retained
- Your shareholding percentage, and whether there are other directors
- Whether your latest accounts are finalised, and when your year-end falls
Advisory promise
When we might tell you to wait
We won't always tell you to apply today.
We may advise waiting where a year-end is weeks away and the new figures would materially improve your position, where accounts aren't finalised, or where a single year of trading would become two and open a far wider panel.
If waiting for the next set of accounts would meaningfully widen your options, we'll say so before another footprint goes on your file. We give advice — not just applications.
Straight answers
Common questions about company director mortgages
Our promise
What we'll never do
- Tell you to apply if it won't work
- Send applications everywhere
- Recommend borrowing beyond your budget
- Hide bad news
We don't judge you on your payslip. We work out what your business genuinely supports.
Find out what your accounts actually support
Tell us your salary, dividends, profit position and shareholding — we'll assess what's realistically possible.
We don't recommend a lender until we've worked out whether salary and dividends, share of net profit, or retained profit gives you the stronger figure.
A five-minute conversation can be worth more than a year of restructuring how you pay yourself.
£500 adviser fee — payable on completion.
Let's review your mortgage situation
Free adviser assessment • No credit search • FCA regulated
Struggled to get approved elsewhere? We specialise in complex cases including CCJs, self-employed income, and declined applications. Over 90% of our clients had concerns about their situation before speaking to us.
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