Jeff & Moishe — Co-directors
Real broker access · 5.0★ across all reviews · Melbourne-based, Australia-wide
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Lenders don't distrust your income. They distrust unfinished paperwork. A business owner earning $180,000 with two lodged tax returns is an easier file than one earning $250,000 whose accountant is still finalising last year. If your own bank has already lowballed you or knocked you back on a technicality, that's the file we want.
Indicative only. Final capacity confirmed with a strategy call.
The unglamorous work most brokers skip — and where the outcome is actually decided.
For a full-documentation loan, most lenders will want some combination of the following. Exact requirements vary by lender, which is precisely why the match matters.
Two years of personal tax returns with matching notices of assessment. A notice of assessment is the ATO's formal statement that your return has been processed. Lenders treat it as proof the income is real and lodged, not projected. You can print yours from myGov.
Business financials for the same period — profit and loss statements and balance sheets. If you trade through a company or trust, the entity's returns as well.
Evidence of trading history. An ABN active for a reasonable period, and GST registration where turnover requires it. A longer, cleaner history reads as stability.
BAS and business bank statements. Some lenders use these to check that recent trading supports the income in your last return — useful if the business has grown since.
Depreciation, one-off expenses and interest on debt being refinanced may be added back to your taxable income for servicing purposes, depending on the lender.
Two files with identical tax returns can produce materially different borrowing outcomes purely on how the add-backs are identified and presented. This is unglamorous work and it is where a broker earns their keep.
Whatever rate you're offered, the lender must test your repayments at three percentage points above it. That's APRA's serviceability buffer, unchanged and confirmed most recently in May 2026.
It applies to everyone. It bites hardest where income is assessed conservatively — which is often the self-employed file. Another reason presentation matters as much as the income itself.
Lenders assess lodged history, not potential. If 2025–26 was your best year yet, that strength is invisible until the return is lodged.
Self-lodgers have until 31 October. Returns lodged online are typically processed by the ATO within about two weeks. Lodging earlier simply brings forward the day your borrowing capacity reflects reality — and if a purchase is on your horizon this financial year, that conversation with your accountant is worth having now rather than in spring.
A missing return doesn't automatically mean waiting a year. Some lenders may consider alternative documentation — an accountant's declaration, BAS history, business bank statements — usually at different pricing and with tighter conditions. Whether that trade-off makes sense depends on your circumstances and timing.
Sometimes the honest answer is lodge first, apply after. We'll tell you which. See Low Doc & Alt Doc Lending.
Real broker access. Real strategy. Real outcomes.
Moishe writes self-employed and complex-income files as his core practice. Knowing which lender reads a set of financials properly, and which will only read a payslip, is the difference between a decline and a settlement.
Not around them. Tax minimisation and borrowing capacity pull in opposite directions, and the fix is usually a conversation between the three of us — not a lecture from us to you.
If your file will be materially stronger in four months, we'll say so. We'd rather write your loan next quarter than watch an application fail this one.
Including specialist non-bank lenders whose credit policy is built for exactly this. Your bank has one policy. We have a choice.
Four clear steps — managed end to end, with you in the loop at every stage.
Twenty minutes on how your income actually works — structure, entities, what your last two years look like.
We map your income the way a lender will, identify the add-backs, and tell you what's realistically achievable.
We take the file to the lenders whose policy fits it, not to whoever is nearest.
We manage the file through to settlement and keep your accountant in the loop where it helps.
30 minutes with Jeff or Moishe. We'll tell you how a lender would read your file before you apply. No script. No upsell.
Jump into our live booking calendar and lock in a 30-minute strategy call with Jeff or Moishe — phone or video, whenever works for you.
Book a Call →Book a 30-minute strategy call. Free. No obligation. Talk to a real broker today.
Sources: ATO, notices of assessment and lodgement timing (2026); APRA, macroprudential policy settings, 28 May 2026; ASIC RG 209. General information only — not tax, financial or credit advice. Speak with us and your accountant about your specific circumstances.