Making Complex Income Work For You On A Home Loan

Complex income from trusts, companies, bonuses or foreign currency can be used for a home loan, but lenders will only count it if it looks stable, recurring and well‑documented in their language. A high‑calibre broker’s job is to translate your real earnings into that lender‑friendly story, choose the right bank and plug the gaps in your paperwork before you hit Apply.

In practice, that means mapping your entities, understanding how the money actually gets to you, and lining this up with tax returns, payslips, bank statements and BAS so credit can comfortably say “yes”.

Mapping complex income onto one clear page is the first step to a lender-ready story.

1. How banks see complex income (and why it matters)

Lenders don’t care how clever your structure is.

They care about three things:

1. Is the income stable and recurring?
2. Can we prove it with acceptable documents?
3. Does it survive a 3% serviceability buffer on the interest rate (APRA guideline)?

So they often shade anything non‑base:

• Bonuses/commission: typically 20–50% haircut.
• Overtime/allowances: usually averaged over 6–24 months.
• Trust/company income: only what’s actually available to you and recurring.
• Foreign income: often discounted again for FX and policy risk.

A good broker builds this into your plan upfront so your target price range and repayment limits line up with reality and safe stress levels (around 30–35% of net income in repayments for most households).

2. Trust distributions and company profits

If you use a trust or company, banks look through the entity and ask: what’s really yours, and can it continue?

Trust income

Key lender questions:

• Are you a beneficiary who regularly receives distributions?
• What do the last 2 years of trust tax returns show?
• Do resolutions and bank statements match the tax returns?

Common treatment:

• Take the lower of the last 2 years’ distributions to you.
• Sometimes average them; sometimes shade again if volatile.
• Check no big one‑offs (e.g. single capital gain) are being treated as ongoing.

Worked example
Discretionary trust distributions to you:

• FY24: $180,000
• FY23: $150,000

A conservative lender might use $150,000 as your trust income, add your salary if you have one, then test repayments at actual rate + 3%.

This is where a broker who also understands tax can help you avoid structures that kill both borrowing power and future flexibility, and where early coordination with your accountant is critical.

Company income

Where you own and run a company, lenders usually assess:

• Your salary/dividends plus some or all of retained profit.
• 2 years financials and tax returns.
• Add‑backs like depreciation, one‑off expenses or director super.

If company profits are rising, a broker can sometimes argue for an assessment based on the latest year only, which can materially lift borrowing power.

For more on how lenders read small business numbers, see How Banks Really Judge Your Small Business At Home Loan Time.