Dartmouth
Dartmouth self-employed electrician, 15% gross-up, 5% down
Can a sole-proprietor electrician get an insured mortgage in Dartmouth on two years of tax returns?
Can a sole-proprietor electrician get an insured mortgage in Dartmouth on two years of tax returns?
Yes. CMHC lets an A-lender gross up two years of Notices of Assessment by 15%, so an average net of $68,000 reads as $78,200. With a partner’s $52,000 salary, a $430,000 Dartmouth semi with 5% down qualifies at 31% gross debt service. The bank-statement route at a B-lender needed 20% down and a fee.
Illustrative example
The situation
- Location
- Dartmouth, Halifax Regional Municipality
- Borrower
- A sole-proprietor electrician, two years in business, and his partner, salaried; their first purchase together
- Income
- $68,000 two-year average on the electrician’s Notices of Assessment, plus a $52,000 T4 salary
- Credit
- Both low 700s; the work truck is paid off
- Purchase price
- $430,000
- Down payment
- $21,500
- Mortgage
- $424,840
- Payment at 4.45%
- $2,340 a month
- Down payment $21,500
- Mortgage $424,840
Dartmouth, Halifax Regional Municipality; Halifax-Dartmouth region, where the August 2026 NSAR average was $592,675.
The challenge
Two years of self-employment, so the returns are the income. After the truck, tools and home office came off the T2125, line 15000 averaged $68,000 across the two Notices of Assessment. His bank branch read that figure alone, offered a bank-statement product through its alternative-lending arm instead, and asked for 20% down.
What the lender looked at
- 24 months in business and two Notices of Assessment, both filed and paid; CMHC allows a 15% gross-up on the two-year average, so $68,000 reads as $78,200.
- A lower second year is usually the one used, and a sharply higher one may be capped. Here the two years sat $4,000 apart, which made the average safe.
- No CRA balance owing: a statement of account showing the year’s tax paid is a hard condition, because the Canada Revenue Agency can register a lien ahead of the mortgage.
- Financing at 95% on a one or two-unit home, credit 600+, and the mortgage qualified at 6.45% with the partner’s T4 income on the file.
What was done
Both routes were priced. The A-lender route: an insured mortgage at 5% down on the grossed-up two-year average plus the partner’s salary, supported by both T1 Generals and Notices of Assessment, a CRA statement of account and twelve months of business bank statements. The B-lender route: bank statements alone, 20% down, a higher rate and a lender fee, typically around 1% of the mortgage, deducted from the advance.
The outcome
Illustrative outcome: the A-lender route cleared at 31% gross debt service, needed $64,500 less cash than the B-lender route and carried no lender fee. A $424,840 insured mortgage over 25 years at 4.45% (chartered-bank prime rate, Bank of Canada, 2026-09-16) is about $2,340 a month, qualified at $2,833. Cash on closing: $27,950 for the down payment and Halifax Regional Municipality deed transfer tax, plus legal fees.
Go deeper
The detail, if you want it
What to take from it
- The gross-up alone was worth about $44,669 of purchase price at the qualifying rate; ask whether a lender applies it before accepting a bank-statement product.
- File on time and pay the balance. A Notice of Assessment showing tax owing turns an A file into a B file until the CRA statement is clean.
- Every deduction lowers line 15000. The year before you buy, ask your accountant which write-offs are worth their cost in mortgage room.
- A bank branch has one product for self-employed income; a broker places the same file with the lender whose policy fits the returns.
How the figures were computed
This is an illustrative example. The people, the property and the outcome are not real; the rules and the arithmetic are. Prices are the August 2026 regional averages from Nova Scotia Association of REALTORS® / CREA monthly statistics, or a stated example price; the deed transfer tax is the municipal rate on the provincial schedule; premiums are CMHC’s published schedule; qualifying uses OSFI’s rule. The contract rate is named in the outcome with its source. Legal, recording and title figures are typical ranges, not quotes.
- www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca: https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/professionals/project-funding-and-mortgage-financing/mortgage-loan-insurance/mortgage-loan-insurance-homeownership-programs/self-employed
- www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca: https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/consumers/home-buying/mortgage-loan-insurance-for-consumers/cmhc-mortgage-loan-insurance-cost
- www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca: https://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca/en/supervision/financial-institutions/banks/minimum-qualifying-rate-uninsured-mortgages
- novascotia.ca: https://novascotia.ca/sns/pdf/ans-property-dtt-rates.pdf
- creastats.crea.ca: https://creastats.crea.ca/board/nsar/
How it works
From first call to keys, in four steps
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A 15-minute call
You say what you’re trying to do and roughly what you earn.
Riley tell you the price a lender will support, the cash you need to close, and what to fix first.
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Documents and pre-approval
You send the short list through a secure upload link.
Riley package the file and come back with a pre-approval letter and a rate held 90 to 120 days.
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Lenders, side by side
You read the comparison and pick.
Riley place one application with banks, credit unions and monolines, and show you every answer.
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Approval, lawyer, keys
You sign with your own local lawyer.
Riley hold the lender, appraiser and lawyer to the closing date.
Why a broker
Licensed, independent, paid by the lender
- Licensed in Nova Scotia Associate broker 3001134, verifiable on the provincial register
- $0 broker fee On a standard residential mortgage the lender pays, not you
- Banks, credit unions, monolines One application, one credit check, placed with the lender that reads your file best
- Every part of the province Bedford office, remote process: Yarmouth to Sydney, the same four steps
Questions people ask
What if the two years had been $70,000 and $40,000?
Most lenders use the lower year, or a weighted average, when the second year falls, so the income would read closer to $46,000 grossed up than to $78,200. The file might still work at a lower price, on the partner’s income alone, or after one more year of stronger returns.
Does the 15% gross-up apply at every lender?
It is CMHC’s allowance for insured files; each lender decides how it applies it, and some add back specific deductions such as capital cost allowance instead. Either way the file needs 24 months in business and two filed returns.
What would the B-lender route have cost on closing day?
$86,000 down instead of $21,500, plus a lender fee of typically around 1% of the mortgage, about $3,440 here, deducted from the advance. The rate is higher and the term usually one to two years, with a move back to an A-lender at renewal once the returns support it.
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