You may have heard of the SA302 form. If you are self employed and have sent in your returns in paper form rather than online, you will definitely have heard of it. So what is it? The SA302 form is a summary of the income that you have reported to HMRC. It is hard copy certification that shows how much income you declared, and it is used to verify the income of those who are self employed and therefore won’t have a monthly payslip, or even a guaranteed monthly income.
Mortgage lenders are particularly keen to see your SA302 as this is the quickest, easiest, and most trustworthy way to see what you earn, and therefore what you may be able to borrow when it comes to buying a house. If you file your return online, you won’t be sent this summary, and you will have to download or request the correct forms from HMRC in order to pass these to the mortgage lender when they are requested. Many mortgage lenders want to see two to three years’ worth of the SA302 to confirm your income.
If you have trouble obtaining a form, then ask your accountant who will be able to get it for you, or call the HMRC Self Assessment Helpline (0300 200 3300).
When applying for your SA302, you will need to give a number of details to the operator. These include your name, address, date of birth, National Insurance Number, and your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR).
Even if your lender has not asked to see three years’ worth of forms, it’s always best to be prepared, just in case the tax year they are talking about is not the one you are talking to HMRC about (or the one that relates to the form you have found).
An important point to remember is that you must keep the information held with the HMRC up to date. Due to the HMRC rules, only the address that is registered with them can be used to send documents – including the SA302 form. A little tip in order to start the mortgage process moving faster is to ask HMRC to send copies of the document urgently (via fax, usually) to your mortgage lender. Although the lender will still need to see the original, this at least means that they can start the process.
