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Complex Income Mortgages

Earn in a way banks find tricky? We’ll make it simple. Tell us how you’re paid and what you’re trying to do. We’ll reply today with a practical route, what evidence to provide, and the next steps.

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Why use a Complex Income Loan?

Income isn’t always neat payslips. Complex income loans (often called complex income mortgages) are built for self-employed, Ltd company directors (using salary, dividends or retained profits), day-rate contractors (inside/outside IR35), CIS workers, and people with mixed PAYE + self-employed or variable pay (bonus/commission/overtime).

With Clever Lending you get lender choice, plain-English advice and one point of contact. If a route won’t work, we’ll say so early and suggest one that will.

What Complex Income Loans can cover

  • Purchases and remortgages (including capital raise)
  • Residential and Buy to Let (by lender policy)
  • Profiles we place:
    • Self-employed / sole traders (latest year or average)
    • Ltd company directors (salary + dividends and, with some lenders, retained profits)
    • Day-rate contractors (annualised day-rate methods)
    • CIS workers (vouchers used as income with certain lenders)
    • PAYE with variable pay (bonus/commission averaged sensibly)
    • Mixed income (PAYE + self-employed + rental combined clearly)

Final terms depend on lender, valuation and status.

How it works

Typical timing: similar to standard mortgages. Clear evidence = faster outcomes.

Decision in principle (today)

Tell us how you’re paid and your goal. We confirm a route and what evidence is needed.

Evidence & valuation

We collect only the right documents for your profile and arrange valuation access.

Offer & legals

You get formal terms; solicitors complete standard checks. We keep everyone moving.

Funds released

You complete and get on with your plans.

What you’ll need (by profile)

  • Self-employed / sole trader: last 2–3 years’ SA302s + Tax Year Overviews, finalised accounts, 3–6 months’ bank statements.
  • Ltd company director: company accounts/CT600s, salary/dividend breakdown, accountant’s reference (for retained profits if used), bank statements.
  • Day-rate contractor: current contract, CV, last 3–6 months’ payslips/umbrella statements (if applicable), gap explanation, bank statements.
  • CIS: 3–12 months’ CIS vouchers + bank statements.
  • PAYE with variable pay: 3–6 months’ payslips, P60, short employer letter confirming bonus/commission.
  • Everyone: ID & proof of address, deposit/equity evidence, valuation access contact.

What it costs (transparent)

  • Interest rate & product/arrangement fee (shown in your illustration)
  • Valuation (standard; investment properties may use investment methods)
  • Legal fees (free legals on some remortgages)
  • Our fee (agreed up-front in writing)

No surprises: we’ll send a personalised illustration with the total cost of credit before you proceed.

Recent results

Ltd director using retained profits

Lender considered salary + retained profits; offer issued with accountant’s letter; completed in 4 weeks.

Day-rate IT contractor

Annualised at day-rate × 5 × 46; short gap explained; smooth offer.

CIS subcontractor purchase

12 months’ vouchers used as gross income; clean conduct; straight approval.

(Anonymised; figures indicative.)

Complex Income Mortgages FAQs

Often yes, if it’s credible and supported by accounts/MI. Some will average — we’ll route you to the right option.
A subset will, alongside salary/dividends and strong accounts. We’ll confirm who and what they need.
Typically day-rate × 5 × 46–48 weeks. IR35/umbrella setups have their own rules; we’ll match accordingly.
A decision in principle is usually a soft check. We’ll tell you before any hard search.
Yes, within policy. The key is clean evidence for each strand — we’ll build that with you.
Yes. Several specialist and high-street lenders will lend on one year of self-employed accounts, particularly for sole traders and limited company directors with strong industry experience or a previous employed record in the same field. The lender pool is narrower and rates can sit slightly higher, but it's a very achievable deal when packaged correctly with SA302s, tax-year overviews and an accountant's reference.
Most contractor-friendly lenders annualise a day rate by multiplying it by 5 days and 46 to 48 weeks. So £500 a day works out at roughly £115,000 a year. You'll typically need a current contract showing the day rate, a CV showing contracting history and recent bank statements. IR35 status, and whether you trade via an umbrella or a personal service company, both influence which lenders will engage.
Yes. A growing list of UK lenders will assess affordability using salary plus net retained profit, rather than just salary plus dividends. That is hugely valuable for directors who leave profit in the business for tax efficiency. Most lenders want two years of accounts and a clean trading history. The affordability uplift compared to salary-and-dividend calculations is often 30 to 50%.
Not necessarily. If you meet a high-street lender's criteria (typically two or more years of accounts, clean credit and predictable income) self-employed rates match employed rates. Where rates rise is when you need a specialist lender to consider one year of accounts, retained profit, day-rate income or complex income mixes. In those cases expect to pay 0.25 to 1% above the best high-street rate.
Yes. Most lenders will include bonus and commission income, although policies vary. Some take 100% of regular monthly commission and 50% of annual bonus. Others average two or three years' worth. P60s, payslips and an employer reference are usually enough evidence. We match you to lenders who give the highest weight to the income type that matters most for your case.
Yes. Sole traders are well-served by both the high-street and specialist markets, with most lenders asking for two years of self-assessment SA302s and tax-year overviews. One-year accounts options exist with specialists. Affordability is typically calculated on net profit after expenses (not turnover), so it's worth modelling the figures with your broker before approaching lenders.
Yes. A number of specialist lenders treat CIS subcontractors like employed applicants, using gross weekly or monthly invoices (before the 20% CIS deduction) rather than net self-employed profit. That usually produces a much higher borrowing figure than the SA302 route. You'll need three to twelve months of CIS payslips or invoices, plus bank statements showing the matching receipts.
Yes. Mixed-income borrowers (employed plus self-employed, employed plus rental, two part-time jobs, contractor plus bonus) are well catered for by specialist lenders. The trick is finding lenders whose policy lets all the income strands count towards affordability. We work out which combination produces the strongest result and place the case with a lender whose income policy fits.
Most modern mortgage DIPs use a soft credit search, which is visible only to you and doesn't affect your credit score. A full mortgage application (after the DIP) uses a hard search, which is recorded on your file for 12 months. We use soft-search DIPs wherever possible so you can compare options without hitting your credit file.

Cross-product questions, covering costs, timescales and which type of finance fits, are answered in our property finance FAQs.

Other ways we can help

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