The three ways a lender can read a corporation.
A lender reads an incorporated physician one of three ways: salary only, salary plus dividends, or corporate income supported by an accountant letter. Each one pulls income from a different place, and the one you land in depends on how you pay yourself and what your documents can prove.
Salary only is the simplest read. The lender takes the T4 your corporation pays you and treats it like any employed income. If you pay yourself a small salary to keep money in the company, this is also the smallest number. A lender reading salary alone sees only what came out as salary, not what the practice earned.
Salary plus dividends widens the picture. Here the lender adds the salary on your T4 to the dividends reported on your personal return. Dividends usually need a two-year history so the lender can see they are steady, not one-time. If you shifted from salary to dividends recently, the older year may show a pattern the newer year does not, and the lender averages what it can verify.
Corporate income with an accountant letter looks through to the company. The lender considers what the corporation earned, not only what you drew, using financial statements and a letter from your accountant that confirms the numbers and your ownership share. This read can support the largest figure when the practice retains earnings, but it asks for the most paperwork and the most explanation.
Two years of statements: what a lender is looking for.
When a lender reads corporate income, it asks for about two years of financial statements. It is looking for three things: stability in what the practice earns, retained earnings sitting in the company, and what you actually drew out personally. Those three tell the lender whether the income is repeatable and whether the money you live on matches the money the file claims.
Stability
Two years lets a lender see a trend instead of a single snapshot. Revenue that holds or grows reads as repeatable. A sharp jump in the most recent year gets averaged or questioned, because one strong year is not yet a pattern. Overhead matters here too. Clinical payment numbers are gross, before overhead comes out, so a lender wants to see what the corporation kept after expenses.
Retained earnings
Retained earnings are the profits left inside the company after you paid yourself. A lender reads them as capacity: money the practice earned but did not distribute. They can support a corporate-income read, but a lender still checks that the income is available to service a mortgage and is not tied up or already committed elsewhere.
Personal draws
Draws are what you actually took out to live on, through salary, dividends or both. A lender lines your draws up against your personal spending and your existing debt. If you pay a small salary but draw more through dividends or shareholder loans, the statements need to show it clearly, because the lender qualifies you on income it can verify, not on income sitting in the company you have not taken.
Inside the projected-income window, structure matters less.
If you are within 36 months of completing training, a physician program can use a projected income figure regardless of how you pay yourself. Inside that window the salary-versus-dividend question loses most of its weight, because the projected figure does not depend on which line your income came out on.
Two rules shape how it works. The projected figure is a floor, not a bonus: the lender only uses it when your actual verified income is lower. And the income has to be real. Actual income must come from the medical field, and a file with zero income is not permitted. So a brand new corporation with nothing drawn yet still needs verifiable medical earnings behind it.
Who qualifies: residents and fellows enrolled in a Canadian program, and physicians within 36 months of completing training. Foreign-trained physicians who are citizens or permanent residents and hold a provincial licence get a similar window. Outside the window, a lender falls back to reading your corporation one of the three ways above, and your pay structure matters again.
The program also has limits worth knowing before you count on it. It covers an owner-occupied principal residence of one or two units, for purchases, refinances and switches. Rentals, second homes and business-for-self-plus files are excluded. So the projected-income read helps your own home, not an investment property.
| Item | Insured | Uninsured |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum down payment | 10% | 20% |
| From your own resources | at least 5% | at least 10% |
| Rest may be borrowed or gifted | yes | yes |
| Maximum amortization | 25 years | 30 years |
One more note on insured files: the program premium tiers are higher than standard CMHC tiers, not lower. Gifts from family are acceptable for any part of the down payment.
What to line up before you apply.
Bring your accountant in early. The salary on your T4, the dividends on your personal return and the numbers in your corporate statements all have to agree, and your accountant is the one who can confirm them and write the letter a lender asks for. Sorting that out before the file goes in prevents the back-and-forth that stalls an approval.
Documents a lender will ask for
- About two years of corporate financial statements, showing revenue, retained earnings and your draws.
- Personal tax returns and notices of assessment covering the same period.
- T4 for salary, and personal returns showing any dividends.
- An accountant letter confirming the corporate figures and your ownership share, if the file is read on corporate income.
- Provincial college registration, which is CPSO in Ontario.
- Enrollment confirmation showing specialty and year, or completion confirmation with the date, if you are using the training window.
If you are inside the 36-month window, add the enrollment or completion paperwork above and the college registration. A first-year resident whose college listing is not live before closing has an exception path, so a listing that has not gone live yet is not an automatic stop.
Also list your student loans and professional line of credit before you apply, because they land in your ratios whether or not they are in repayment. Knowing those balances up front lets the file be built around the real qualifying picture instead of a surprise late in the process.
Sources and dates.
Figures in this guide come from the sources below. Each entry shows the date the source published it, or the date it was accessed when the source does not state one. The page carries a review-by date; after June 2027 treat any number as a starting point and check the source.
Frequently asked questions.
Does paying myself a small salary hurt my mortgage application?01
Not on its own. A small salary lowers the number a lender sees if it reads salary only, but it can add dividends from your personal return, or read corporate income with an accountant letter. Inside the 36-month training window, a projected figure can apply regardless of how you pay yourself.
How many years of corporate statements does a lender want?02
About two years. That lets a lender check stability in what the practice earns, see retained earnings in the company, and match your personal draws to the income the file claims.
I just incorporated and have not drawn much yet. Can I still use projected income?03
Possibly, if you are a resident or fellow in a Canadian program or within 36 months of completing training. The projected figure is a floor used only when your actual income is lower, and that actual income must come from the medical field. A file with zero income is not permitted.
Do my student loans count if they are not in repayment yet?04
Yes. Student loans and your professional line of credit are included in your debt ratios even when they are not in repayment. The loan payment is calculated at the minimum qualifying rate over a 15-year amortization, and other student revolving credit counts at 1.5% of the balance per month.
Who do I work with depending on my province?05
Jeff Mudrick is licensed in Ontario. Physicians in British Columbia and Alberta work with Taylor Atkinson of Venture Mortgages. Physicians elsewhere in Canada are matched with a vetted referral broker.