Income to put on CC Apps or CLI increase

[Anonymous]

Hey guys, first time poster but long time lurker.

I had a question about my income I should be putting on apps or when requests a CLI. I am currently self employed and I make about 65k a year net. I know most ask for my gross income which is almost double of what my net is. Should i be putting my gross even though i net half as much? I just do not want to run into a problem where they need verification and they see the huge difference. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks again

[Jon85]

If they ask for annual gross income, then it's all your earnings before any deductions. 

If they ask for verficiation, they usually ask for tax statements or stubs (I'm guessing in your case it would be tax statements since you're self-employed), but it would still have your "gross annual income" on top before any of the deductions so you'd be fine! 

90% of the time they ask for gross and that's what I put, even though it's usually a higher number than my AGI income on my taxes.

[Anonymous]

Oh ok thanks. I always worry, since i have so many deductiions and write offs. I just do not want any account closures when requesting CLI or anything. Thanks

[dragontears]

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@Jon85 wrote:

If they ask for annual gross income, then it's all your earnings before any deductions. 

If they ask for verficiation, they usually ask for tax statements or stubs (I'm guessing in your case it would be tax statements since you're self-employed), but it would still have your "gross annual income" on top before any of the deductions so you'd be fine! 

90% of the time they ask for gross and that's what I put, even though it's usually a higher number than my AGI income on my taxes.

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I kind of disagree with this, If you were an employee then yeah gross income; however, business gross income =/= personal gross income (at least in my understanding), and your gross income would essentially be your net profit from a business.

Hopefully some of the business owners on the forum can share how they handle this type of thing.

[Anonymous]

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@dragontears wrote:

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@Jon85 wrote:

If they ask for annual gross income, then it's all your earnings before any deductions. 

If they ask for verficiation, they usually ask for tax statements or stubs (I'm guessing in your case it would be tax statements since you're self-employed), but it would still have your "gross annual income" on top before any of the deductions so you'd be fine! 

90% of the time they ask for gross and that's what I put, even though it's usually a higher number than my AGI income on my taxes.

---

I kind of disagree with this, If you were an employee then yeah gross income; however, business gross income =/= personal gross income (at least in my understanding), and your gross income would essentially be your net profit from a business.

Hopefully some of the business owners on the forum can share how they handle this type of thing.

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Yeah I do have some worries about it as well. This year the gross was around 160k but as i said earlier, my net was only around 60-70. I would love to be able to put the 160 but I do not want to overdue it.

[Jon85]

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@dragontears wrote:

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@Jon85 wrote:

If they ask for annual gross income, then it's all your earnings before any deductions. 

If they ask for verficiation, they usually ask for tax statements or stubs (I'm guessing in your case it would be tax statements since you're self-employed), but it would still have your "gross annual income" on top before any of the deductions so you'd be fine! 

90% of the time they ask for gross and that's what I put, even though it's usually a higher number than my AGI income on my taxes.

---

I kind of disagree with this, If you were an employee then yeah gross income; however, business gross income =/= personal gross income (at least in my understanding), and your gross income would essentially be your net profit from a business.

Hopefully some of the business owners on the forum can share how they handle this type of thing.

---

I am a business owner myself and when I am filing my taxes, all of my sales are listed as gross income... so what ever I make as business income in terms of sales/commissions/etc is my income. 

But then after my write-offs and deductions, that's the number that becomes my AGI (my personal income). But my gross income would still be total sales etc before deductions. 

[MyLoFICO]

I've always just rounded to the nearest million to be safe. 

[Anonymous]

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@Jon85 wrote:

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@dragontears wrote:

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@Jon85 wrote:

If they ask for annual gross income, then it's all your earnings before any deductions. 

If they ask for verficiation, they usually ask for tax statements or stubs (I'm guessing in your case it would be tax statements since you're self-employed), but it would still have your "gross annual income" on top before any of the deductions so you'd be fine! 

90% of the time they ask for gross and that's what I put, even though it's usually a higher number than my AGI income on my taxes.

---

I kind of disagree with this, If you were an employee then yeah gross income; however, business gross income =/= personal gross income (at least in my understanding), and your gross income would essentially be your net profit from a business.

Hopefully some of the business owners on the forum can share how they handle this type of thing.

---

I am a business owner myself and when I am filing my taxes, all of my sales are listed as gross income... so what ever I make as business income in terms of sales/commissions/etc is my income. 

But then after my write-offs and deductions, that's the number that becomes my AGI (my personal income). But my gross income would still be total sales etc before deductions. 

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Yeah, I am about try to get a CLI with chase and amex soon and I just dont want to put my gross and have it throw a red flag for any reasons. I am newer to CLIs and everything so I am just trying to be safe than sorry

[Anonymous]

I don't know if this helps, but when I bought my condo 7 years ago, my gross was considered from my ending PnL statement as a sole proprietor. I have no clue how credit card lenders might view this, but that's how my lender did.

[Anonymous]

I'm also self employed. Your gross income for credit application purposes is what appears on line 22 of your 1040. You could use line 37, (adjusted gross), if you want to be a little more conservative.