- An SA302 is HMRC's official summary of your income and tax for a tax year.
- Lenders use it to verify self-employed and director income, usually for the last two years.
- It must be paired with a tax year overview, which proves the tax was actually filed.
- You can get both from your HMRC online account, or your accountant can produce them.
- File your Self Assessment on time: a late return means no SA302 for that year, which can stall an application.
Estimate your borrowing
What an SA302 is
An SA302 is the tax calculation HMRC produces from your Self Assessment return. It shows your total income for the year, broken down by source, and the income tax and National Insurance due on it. Because it comes from HMRC rather than from you, lenders treat it as reliable proof of income.
It is mainly used by the self-employed, sole traders, partners and company directors, anyone whose income is not a single PAYE salary that a payslip could prove on its own.
How to get yours
There are two routes:
- From your HMRC online account. Sign in to your Self Assessment account, go to "Get your SA302 tax calculation", and view or print the calculation for each year you need.
- From your accountant. If you file through commercial software, your accountant can print the equivalent tax calculation directly, which most lenders accept.
If you filed by post or by phone, you may need to ask HMRC to send a paper copy, which takes longer, so plan ahead.
Why the tax year overview matters
An SA302 on its own is not enough. Lenders pair it with a tax year overview, a separate HMRC document showing the tax that was due and what you actually paid. Together they prove two things: what your income was, and that you genuinely filed and the figures are real.
The income on your SA302 and the tax on your tax year overview should reconcile. A mismatch is a classic reason an application stalls, so check them against each other before you send them.
How lenders use the figures
Most lenders take the income figure from your SA302s and average the last two years, then apply an income multiple of around 4.5 to set your maximum borrowing. If your income is rising, some will use the latest year; if it is falling, a cautious lender may use the lower year. The estimator above shows both ends of that range.
For directors, what counts as "income" on the SA302 depends on how you pay yourself, which is where the director mortgage question of dividends versus retained profit comes back in.