Anticipated yearly bonus - reported income

[Duncanrr]

I've never included my annual bonus in reported salary for credit cards or other applications as its not always an guaranteed amount. I'm curious how others handle this.

Thoughts

[enharu]

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@Duncanrr wrote:
I've never included my annual bonus in reported salary for credit cards or other applications as its not always an guaranteed amount. I'm curious how others handle this.

Thoughts

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Well in cases like this, it's best to just write whatever income you earned last year. That way, you have all the necessary documents to back it up, if they ask for it.

[red259]

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@enharu wrote:

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@Duncanrr wrote:
I've never included my annual bonus in reported salary for credit cards or other applications as its not always an guaranteed amount. I'm curious how others handle this.

Thoughts

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Well in cases like this, it's best to just write whatever income you earned last year. That way, you have all the necessary documents to back it up, if they ask for it.

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+1 Some people have really small salaries, but at the end of the year get a huge bonus. Its unfair to get credit limits set based on a small salary, which is a fraction of what you will be earning by the end of the year. That being said bonuses are not guaranteed, so I think Enharu's advice is the best compromise. You don't want to be in a situation where you give them a number and then you don't get the bonus and then there is a FR later on and you can't back up what you told them. 

[Revelate]

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@enharu wrote:

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@Duncanrr wrote:
I've never included my annual bonus in reported salary for credit cards or other applications as its not always an guaranteed amount. I'm curious how others handle this.

Thoughts

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Well in cases like this, it's best to just write whatever income you earned last year. That way, you have all the necessary documents to back it up, if they ask for it.

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+1.

That said I'm not certain that I can claim my bonus as income when it comes to my theoretical mortgage I'm going to try to get underwritten next year.

[youngandcreditwrthy]

I've received the same amount of bonus every year.. So I include it.
I've had the same position for about three years, so I feel my proclamation is warranted in that regard.

[BMW_M-Series]

I always put my previous year tax returns as my income stated on an application. It is just easy to verify if I ever had to. Although I see nothing wrong with including bonus' from the current year just always be prepared to have it documented just incase you need to show it to a company if asked.

[Pat94108]

Personally, I include bonuses now when I apply for credit cards but it's not like they make a huge difference in my salary (Got about 5k this year) either so I don't feel bad about it.

[Duncanrr]

My bonus at last job varied greatly. Im not sure how new job will be with them other than i know i will get an incentive based one. Typically, my bonus ranged from 5% - 15% of my base salary.

[youngandcreditwrthy]

Yeah, the bonus always gets reported and taxed heh -.- lol

[red259]

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@Pat94108 wrote:

Personally, I include bonuses now when I apply for credit cards but it's not like they make a huge difference in my salary (Got about 5k this year) either so I don't feel bad about it.

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Yea 5k isn't a huge difference. When I first read the question I was thinking of the traders on wall street where they get paid a small salary and get these massive bonuses at the end of the year. In that situation it can be drastically different.