Step 1: Determine what kind of loan you want (and can get)
If you are employed full-time, and your salaried job is your only source of income, you can usually get away with providing your W-2s and a paycheck stub when applying for a loan — you won’t need to provide tax returns.
That’s not true of every loan, though. If you are applying for an FHA loan, for example, you’ll have to provide your tax returns, no matter what.
There are other circumstances when tax returns are required, too, such as if you own rental property, or if you are investing in the stock market and earn income from dividends.
You might have a salaried job, but if you’ve been investing in the stock market and have $10,000 to $30,000 each year in dividends income, you can, in some cases, use that income as additional income and help you qualify for more loan.
If you are self-employed, retired, a contract employee, or if you have a side gig that provides income in addition to your full-time job, you’ll have to provide two years of tax returns to show proof of your entire income if you want to get the standard qualified mortgage, which is the type of mortgage that accounts for the majority of loans made today.
What’s a qualified mortgage loan?
It’s a mortgage that follows rules set out by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2011. These rules are designed to create a standard for documenting and verifying a borrower’s financials that creates a presumption that the borrower can afford the loan they have applied for. Qualified mortgages are great because they require a lender to fully verify certain factors to ensure you are likely to be able to afford your loan long-term.
“The challenge with folks that are self-employed, or contract employees, is that your income might fluctuate from year to year, and you can’t show a consistent amount earned for the two years a lender wants to see like a W-2 employee would,” says Sanchez. When you go to apply for a qualified mortgage, the lender will want to see tax returns as the best way to create an average picture of how much you earn every year. They use this to determine how much loan they think you can afford.
But what can you do if you don’t want to track down those tax returns to apply for a qualified mortgage (QM)? That’s where the non-QM loan comes into play.
What’s a non-qualified mortgage loan?
In some unique instances, self-employed borrowers whose tax returns don’t accurately reflect their actual monthly income are eligible for a lower-document loan, which is referred to as a non-QM (qualified mortgage) loan.
A non-QM loan does not meet the standards set by the CFPB for a qualified mortgage, as detailed above, but it still satisfies the spirit of the “Ability to Repay” rules under the Dodd-Frank Act. These rules, at their core, require a lender to verify and document that a borrower can afford a loan; they just aren’t as specific as to how that verification is satisfied as they are with the QM. This type of loan isn’t offered by every lender, and they have their own special rules that might vary from lender to lender.
“They are specialty loans,” explains Sanchez, “where, if you are a self-employed individual and we as a lender can see income via bank statements [instead of with tax returns], you may be able to qualify.”
The availability of non-QM loans may become a bit tricky during times of economic strain.
For example, Sanchez warned, during the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic, the non-QM market slowed dramatically. Many lenders stopped making these loans for a period so they could reassess the risks in the market caused by the pandemic and associated economic shutdown.
She also points out that non-QM loans generally come at a higher rate or cost. “They often cost more upfront, meaning they charge additional points and fees, and they also might charge a higher interest rate.”
