Every summer, something quietly useful happens for business owners in BC. A new tax year becomes available, and the two years a lender reads move forward by one.
If you are self-employed and thinking about buying, renewing or refinancing this fall, that timing decides which numbers your file gets built on.
The document a lender is actually asking for
When I ask a business owner for two years of taxes, what I need for each year is a pair of documents, not one.
The T1 General is the return you and your accountant prepared. The Notice of Assessment is the CRA’s confirmation of what it accepted. CMHC’s self-employed guidance lists the acceptable income document as the “Notice of Assessment (NOA) accompanied by T1 General” — the two together, not either on its own. (CMHC)
Sagen’s Business for Self (Alt. A) program takes the same approach. For a sole proprietor, the lender obtains T1 Generals with the Statement of Business Activities attached for a minimum of two years, plus the most recent year’s Notice of Assessment to confirm income and tax status. (Sagen)
The figure most lenders start from is line 15000, total income, on each of those returns. How that number is then adjusted — add-backs, retained earnings, the difference between a sole proprietorship and a corporation — is covered on my page about self-employed mortgages in BC. This post is about something narrower: which two years, and when they change.
Why the window moves every summer
Self-employed people file later than everyone else, by design.
If you or your spouse carried on a business in 2025, the CRA’s deadline to file the 2025 return was June 15, 2026, rather than the April 30 date that applies to most individuals. A balance owing was still payable by April 30. (CRA)
Assessment follows filing. So through the spring, a business owner’s application is usually read on the two completed years before the one just ended. A file put together in May 2026 was built on 2023 and 2024.
Once the 2025 return is filed and assessed, the pair becomes 2024 and 2025. By late August, most business owners who filed on time have that 2025 Notice of Assessment waiting in their CRA account. If 2025 was a stronger year than 2023, the roll-forward works in your favour: the older year steps out of the average and the newer one steps in.
That is the best reason I know to look at your numbers in the fall rather than waiting until spring.
Getting the documents in hand
You can pull all of this yourself, usually in a few minutes:
- Sign in to your CRA account and open the Tax returns tab. Notices of assessment for the current and previous years are there, and they appear as soon as the return finishes processing. (CRA)
- The proof of income statement — the “option C” print — is in the same place. The CRA describes it as “a simple generic version of your tax assessment” summarising your income and deductions for a tax year. Lenders accept it readily. (CRA)
- If you would rather not sign in, the CRA’s automated line at 1-800-959-8281 will mail one. You will need your SIN, full name, date of birth, address, and line 15000 from your most recent assessment, and delivery takes up to 10 days.
Clear digital copies are fine. I have never needed an original.
What goes alongside the returns
Beyond the returns and assessments, CMHC lists documents that confirm how long the business has been operating: business credit reports, GST returns, active business account statements, financial statements with a review engagement report from an accountant, and a business licence or articles of incorporation.
On length of time in business, CMHC says a minimum of 24 months operating the business, or experience in the same line of work, is recommended. Where someone has been on their own for less than that, it also sets out factors that support the application: acquiring an established business, sufficient cash reserves, predictable earnings, previous training and education, and a demonstrated history of managing credit.
Sagen’s Business for Self program sets a minimum of two years’ business-for-self tenure, allows up to 90% loan-to-value on a purchase, and applies property value limits — under $1,500,000 where loan-to-value is above 80%, and under $1,000,000 at or below 80%.
If you are incorporated, add the T2 corporate returns and accountant-prepared financial statements, plus a letter from your accountant confirming your ownership percentage and the deductions being added back.
Holding the window once you have it
A tax year, once assessed, is settled. Your 2024 and 2025 numbers are fixed now, and they are the pair a lender reads until your 2026 return is assessed next summer. That makes this a good stretch of the calendar to get a pre-approval in place. The FCAC notes that a pre-approval lets you lock in an interest rate for 60 to 130 days, depending on the lender — so a hold taken now on your 2024–2025 numbers carries you well into the winter. The same applies if you have a renewal coming up: knowing what your current two years produce, before the maturity date arrives, gives you time to work with.
Business owners in the Okanagan
A lot of the files I work on here belong to people who run their business on their own calendar — trades and contractors, consultants, growers, people in hospitality and tourism. Their busiest stretch of the year and their tax paperwork almost never line up.
Late summer is one of the few points in the year when both are settled at once. The season’s work is done or nearly done, and last year’s assessment is in hand. It is a practical moment to find out where you stand, rather than starting the conversation in February and guessing at a year that has not been filed yet.
Where I come in
If you want to know which two years your file would be read on and what they produce, the fastest start is your two most recent Notices of Assessment and a short conversation about how the business is structured. From there I can tell you what the numbers support, and which of my 50+ lenders reads a business owner’s income the way yours is shaped.
There is no cost to you for placing a conventional mortgage. If your notice of assessment has landed and you have been meaning to look at this, I would be glad to hear from you.