If people are looking to take a mortgage, the lender will usually ask to see accounts that have been certified by the accountant – another benefit of having a professional adviser, in addition to the potential tax savings that an adviser can bring.

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Hello, I’m James McBrearty. I’d like to talk to you today about mortgages.

Now for the self-Employed there used to be a thing called a self certification mortgage. And basically when people were filling in the application form they filled in what their turnover and their profit was for a number of years and actually signed  that to certify that that was the figures that they actually produced.

Now those have gone now so what mortgage providers are looking for is a professional certification. Now an accountant can actually certify those and actually when the mortgage company sends through a standard request they’ll put the details of the last few years, turnover and profits and actually sign those to say that these are figures that have been declared to the Inland Revenue.

Now, occasionally I get people asking me can I certify their accounts and unfortunately no, if I haven’t prepared them myself. Then I don’t have the knowledge of those figures. It wouldn’t then be any different than self-certification mortgage, except it would be my reputation actually against those figures.

So if you are thinking about getting a mortgage, you may want to look at actually getting some professional advice for your business accounts.

Now, if you are preparing your own accounts, they might be fairly forward to start off with. It means when you come to apply for a mortgage you don’t have anyone who can actually certify those accounts as been prepared and submitted.

Now I’m a member of the Association of Taxation Technicians and that’s one of the professional associations that’s actually accepted by the majority of mortgage providers. So when they’re looking to get that certification, they’ll ask what the adviser’s qualification is, now, as well as having the ability to certify those figures. If you are using a professional you may find that they might be able to save you some tax as well and actually making sure that you are claiming for everything that you are allowed to.

So there are a lot of benefits to getting a professional adviser and particularly if you are think about getting a mortgage in the future. It’s important to have someone who can actually certify your accounts.