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If you’re self-employed, most lenders want to see your last two years of SA302 tax calculations and matching tax year overviews from HMRC. An SA302 is the tax calculation HMRC produces once you’ve filed a Self Assessment return. It usually runs to two or three pages: your name and Unique Taxpayer Reference at the top, a breakdown of your income by source underneath, then the total tax due for that year. Here’s what each document actually shows, and where self-employed applicants usually trip up getting hold of them.
An SA302 usually runs to two or three pages: your details, an income breakdown, then the tax calculation itself.
You can't print or download it until 72 hours after HMRC has processed your Self Assessment return.
Lenders almost always want the Tax Year Overview alongside it, HMRC's separate confirmation of the same tax figures.
If your accountant filed your return through commercial software, the equivalent document may be called a "tax computation" rather than an SA302.
HMRC keeps the last four tax years available to print, so anything older usually has to come from your accountant's own records.
How HTG Mortgages Can Help
I see SA302s and Tax Year Overviews every week from self-employed clients, and the same two problems come up again and again: someone prints the wrong document, or tries to get hold of one before HMRC has processed the return. I check both match before they go anywhere near a lender, so any problem gets caught early rather than during underwriting.
What’s actually on an SA302?
Your name and Unique Taxpayer Reference sit at the top, so the lender can match it to your application. Below that is a breakdown of your declared income for the year, split by source: self-employment profit, any rental income, dividends, and employment income if you had a job as well. HMRC then shows how it worked out your tax, split across the relevant tax bands, before landing on the total tax due for the year. That figure, and the income it’s based on, is what an underwriter is actually checking.
How is it different from a Tax Year Overview?
The SA302 is HMRC’s calculation of what you owe. The Tax Year Overview is a separate, shorter document confirming HMRC holds that same figure on record. Lenders ask for both because either one on its own is easy to alter. Together, they check each other. If the two don’t match, that’s the first thing an underwriter will query.
How do you get one from HMRC?
If you file online yourself, sign in to your personal tax account, go into Self Assessment, and there’s an option to view and print your tax calculation for each year, plus the Tax Year Overview separately. You can’t do this until 72 hours after you’ve submitted the return, and HMRC keeps the last four tax years available this way. If you filed by post it takes longer to come through, so build that into your timing if you know a mortgage application is coming. For more on what else lenders want to see, I’ve covered that in what documents lenders actually ask for.
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What if your accountant uses their own software?
Most accountants file returns through commercial software rather than HMRC’s own portal, and what comes out the other end is usually called a tax computation rather than an SA302. Following a long-standing agreement between HMRC and UK Finance, a list of lenders will accept a computation from approved software in place of the SA302, provided it’s submitted alongside the Tax Year Overview. Not every lender is on that list, so it’s worth checking before assuming any accountant-produced document will do. If in doubt, ask your accountant to log into your personal HMRC account and pull the SA302 directly. This is also a good moment to check anything tax-specific with your accountant, since that side of it sits outside what I can advise on.
A mistake I see often
The one that comes up most is people sending across the SA302 and nothing else, because they assume it’s the only document that matters. Lenders want the Tax Year Overview too, and without it the file usually bounces back with a request for the missing document, which costs a week or more at a stage where time often matters. The other regular one is trying to get the SA302 the day after filing, before HMRC has actually processed the return. Both are easy to avoid once you know to expect them.
Getting ready if you’re applying soon
File early enough that there’s no scramble close to when you need the documents, and pull both the SA302 and Tax Year Overview for the last two tax years as soon as they’re available, not just the most recent one. Check the figures on both match before they go to a lender. If anything looks off, or your income moved a lot between the two years, it’s worth talking it through with a broker before you apply rather than after.
This piece sits alongside the rest of my general mortgage guides.
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