A good accountant works within the rules to keep your taxable income low, and that is exactly their job. But profitability is what drives serviceability, and serviceability is what gives you the borrowing power to grow your business and your assets. The two pull in opposite directions. Working closely with your accountant, we understand both levers, so your structure can stay tax-efficient while still presenting the profitability that lenders reward. You should not have to choose between paying less tax and borrowing well. With the right structure and the right lender, you get both.
Retained earnings, add-backs, director loans, and one-off expenses are read differently by every lender. We make sure the lender we choose counts the income you genuinely earn.
If your most recent year is your best, we target the lender that assesses it on its own merits rather than averaging it down, which can lift your capacity substantially.
A recent ABN, a new entity, or a move from sole trader to company need not hold you back. We know the lenders that look through to the real trading history.
Self-employed lending is the area where lender policy varies most sharply. Two lenders presented with the identical set of company accounts can land on borrowing capacities that differ by several hundred thousand dollars, purely because of how each one treats the moving parts.
The variables that move the number: whether add-backs like depreciation, interest, and one-off expenses are returned to income; whether retained profits sitting in the company are counted; whether the lender averages two years or uses the most recent; how trust distributions are attributed; and how much time in business the lender requires before it will lend at all.
The cheapest advertised rate is often closed to you. The second or third lender on the shortlist is frequently where the strong outcome sits.
A self-employed consultant operating through a company, two years trading, with $95K drawn as salary and roughly $140K retained in the company each year. Same accounts presented to two lenders with publicly similar rates.
Anonymised illustration. Real outcomes depend on full financial review. Charter Finance does not guarantee any specific borrowing capacity outside that review process.
A high-street bank applies one policy and gives you one answer. Across a panel of more than 50 lenders, the same financials can produce very different outcomes, because each of these levers is treated differently from one lender to the next. Two of them, in particular, are where we change the result for business owners and founders.
Most banks decline the moment a business shows a loss, which rules out almost every growing start-up that reinvests revenue rather than banking profit. But if you draw a genuine salary from your own company, a smaller group of lenders will assess that salary as PAYG income, the same way they would for any employee, rather than fixating on the company's bottom line. For tech founders and other high-growth operators paying themselves properly while the business scales, this is often the difference between a flat "no" and an approval.
If your business carries its own loans, most lenders fold those liabilities straight into your personal serviceability, which can crush your borrowing power. But where you draw a sufficient salary and leave enough profit in the company to cover its own debts, certain lenders will treat you and your business as separate, a "standalone" assessment, and leave the business loans out of your personal calculation entirely. On a business carrying real debt, this single distinction can change your borrowing capacity by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Where your most recent year is your strongest, lenders that assess one year (rather than averaging two and using the lower) can lift assessed income substantially.
Depreciation, one-off expenses, additional super, and director interest can be added back to your assessable income, by the lenders whose policy allows it.
Profit you leave in the company for tax efficiency is ignored by some lenders and counted as income by others, where you are the owner.
Each lender runs its own servicing calculator. The one that reads your income most generously is rarely the one advertising the lowest rate.
The right combination of these levers depends entirely on your structure and goals. The figures and outcomes described are general and illustrative. A full review of your circumstances is needed before any borrowing strategy is recommended.
Left to navigate it alone, self-employed borrowers too often end up with expensive debt, and hand over more security than they should. Banks and some lenders take more collateral than the loan warrants, and they charge a premium where they can, because the borrower has no easy way to compare. Our job is to close that gap: the right lender, the right amount of security, and pricing that reflects your real strength rather than the bank's convenience.
The work is part lender selection, part presentation. We start with your accountant, because the figures need to tell a coherent story before they reach a credit assessor. Then we match your income profile to the lender whose policy treats it most favourably, and we structure the loan so the approval is the start of a wealth position, not just a transaction.
Most self-employed borrowers have been told "no" or "not yet" by a bank at some point. That answer almost always reflects one lender's policy, not your actual borrowing position. We treat a knock-back as information about that lender, then go to the market that fits.
A self-employed GP, a barrister billing through chambers, or an accountant running a practice is both self-employed and a profession-based borrower. The lending concessions differ. If one of these describes you, the profession-specific page is the better starting point, and we will join the two threads together when we talk.
Self-employed doctors, dentists and specialists can often access LMI-waived lending on top of self-employed assessment. The two combined change the picture significantly.
For medical professionalsLawyers, accountants and engineers in their own practice combine profession-based concessions with self-employed income. The structure deserves both lenses.
For professionalsThe full picture of what Charter Finance arranges: residential, investment, SMSF, commercial, refinance, and specialised lending across 50+ lenders.
See all lendingBuilding a portfolio while self-employed brings its own servicing and structuring questions. Our Property Investment page covers the strategy side in depth.
Explore property investmentGeneral information only. For advice specific to your circumstances, speak with a Charter Finance adviser.
No paperwork, no forms, no application yet. A direct discussion about your business, how your income is structured, and what you are trying to achieve. If we can help, we will say so. If we can't, we will say that too.
Book a ConversationYour live financial dashboard, pre-loaded with the data Charter Finance already holds from your lending. Track your Financial Wholeness Index over time and run the calculators with your real numbers.
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