- Qualifying income
- The monthly income a lender counts when deciding how large a payment you can support. For self-employed borrowers it is built from tax returns, not bank deposits: here, the two-year average net profit plus average add-backs, divided by 12. Lenders apply their own rules, so their figure may differ from this estimate.
- Two-year average
- The mean of your net profit across the two most recent tax years. Lenders average two years to smooth out swings in self-employed income and judge whether it is stable. A strong recent year cannot fully offset a weak prior one, and the reverse is not always true, as the income-trend result explains.
- Net profit
- Business income minus deductible business expenses, as reported on your tax return, such as Schedule C for sole proprietors or a K-1 for partnership and S-corporation owners. It is usually well below gross receipts. Because lenders start from this figure, large write-offs that lower your tax also lower the income you can qualify with.
- Add-backs
- Deductions that reduced your taxable profit but did not use cash, or will not recur, which lenders add back to qualifying income. Common examples are depreciation, depletion, business use of the home and certain one-time losses. Each lender decides which items it accepts, so this calculator treats the figure you enter as accepted.
- Depreciation
- A tax deduction that spreads the cost of business equipment, vehicles or property over several years. It lowers taxable profit without any cash leaving the business in that year, so lenders typically add it back to qualifying income. Enter the total claimed across both tax years, as shown on the returns.
- Income trend
- Whether your net profit rose or fell from the prior year to the most recent one. Stable or rising income is usually averaged. When income is declining, lenders typically use the lower, most recent year, or ask for an explanation, because an average would overstate what the business is currently earning.
- Debt-to-income ratio (DTI)
- Your total monthly debt payments, including the proposed housing payment, divided by gross monthly qualifying income. Lenders use it to judge whether you can carry a new loan, and each program sets its own maximum. The qualifying income from this calculator is the denominator, so add-backs and the two-year average directly affect your DTI.
- Pre-qualification
- An early, informal estimate of how much you might be able to borrow, based on income and debts you report. For self-employed borrowers it is only as good as the income figure behind it, which is why this calculator works from tax-return profit rather than gross receipts. It is not a loan approval.
