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I pay myself a small wage from my company. Can the bank still use the profit?

Bayley Clarke · Mortgage broker on the road · Last checked 3 September 2026 · 3 min read

The one minute version. The rest of this page is the detail underneath it.

How the bank reads a company you own

If you are, for example, the 100% owner of your company, what the banks will do is have a look at that company's financials and tax returns and go, okay, there's a net profit figure of this. However, you've paid yourself a salary of, say, $30,000. Because you own the company, they add that salary on top of the net profit, and that's the figure the banks use when figuring out your borrowing capacity.

So a company that made $90k profit after paying you a $30k wage is read as $120k of income to you, not $30k. The wage was money the business earned that you chose to take one way rather than another. The bank knows that, provided it can see you own the business.

Ownership is the gate. Most lenders want you holding a meaningful share before they'll attribute the company's profit to you. The common threshold is half the shares, some go lower, and a couple will use dividends and franking credits from a small holding if that's all you've got. Below their threshold, the bank sees you as an employee of the company and only counts the wage.

What gets added back on top

Just because you pay yourself a small wage doesn't mean the banks aren't going to look at you properly. They look at the wage you pay yourself as director and owner, plus the net profit, and on top of that there are things banks can add back, such as depreciation and any superannuation you're paying yourself above the minimum amounts.

The add-back list is where lenders differ most. Depreciation is the big one: some allow it in full, some cap it at a percentage of profit. Interest on business loans is usually added back only if that loan is also counted as a debt in your assessment. One-off expenses come back if you can show they won't recur. Super above the compulsory rate is near universal. A tradie with a heavily depreciated ute and tools can see a five figure swing in usable income between a full add-back lender and a capped one.

The wages-only shortcut, and when it hurts

There's a second way some lenders assess directors: wages only. If you've been paying yourself a regular salary for six months or more, a few lenders will treat that salary like a PAYG wage, skip the profit and the add-backs entirely, and often skip the full financials too. Less paperwork, faster approval, mainstream rates.

That path is great if your wage is big enough on its own to service the loan you want. It's a trap if it isn't, because the profit you left in the company is invisible to it. So for you that means: know which assessment you need before you pick the lender. A small wage plus strong profit wants the full profit-and-addbacks read, not the shortcut.