When you apply for a mortgage, some of the factors that are assessed to determine whether you qualify for a home loan include your income and employment status. To help verify these, lenders typically require borrowers to submit certain tax forms when they apply.

Here are the tax forms Grandview Lending asks you to submit with your loan application:

• W-2: If you receive $600 or more from an employer during the course of the year, that employer is required to file a W-2 tax form for you. On the form, your income is recorded, along with all withholdings. Note that the income can include wages, tips, as well as other forms of compensation.

• 1040: This is the standard federal tax return form for individual taxpayers. On Form 1040, you report your income as well as any deductions you are claiming. The form allows you to calculate whether you owe any remaining tax at the end of the year, or if the IRS owes you a refund.

What If You Don’t Have These Tax Documents?

If you happen to be self-employed, then you still should have filed a 1040 at the end of the year. That is the tax return form for all individuals, whether they are employees or self-employed.

If you are retired, however, and not receiving any income in addition to your social security benefits, you usually do not have to file a return. So, you may not have a 1040.

Also, if you are self-employed, you do not receive a W-2. You may or may not receive similar forms from clients or payment processors called 1099s. As not every client likely provides them, they often do not illustrate your full income. That leaves you having to fill in the blanks.

In that situation, what do you do? You an apply for a different type of mortgage called a self-employed home loan.

Another name for this type of loan is “bank statement loan.” The reason it is called a bank statement loan is because instead of verifying your income using tax documents, you provide bank statements.

With a regular loan application that includes tax documents, you only need to provide about 2 months of bank statements.

But with a bank statement loan, you need to provide 12-24 months of bank statements in order to provide a detailed look at your income over a sufficient time span. Not every lender offers bank statement loans, but Grandview Lending does.

Buy a Home in Indiana Now

Grandview Lending is based in Indianapolis, and can help you buy a home or refinance in Indianapolis or anywhere in Indiana. During the mortgage process, we can walk you in detail through all of the paperwork and documents you need to submit with your loan application, regardless of whether you are employed or self-employed. To get started, please give us a call at (317) 255-0062 to schedule your consultation.