Self-employed and applying for a spouse visa: which income matters?

A busy business can still produce a difficult spouse visa application. The invoices may look healthy, money may arrive every week and the household may be comfortable. None of those facts, by themselves, identifies the income figure the Home Office needs to assess.

For a sole trader or business partner, the starting point is the qualifying profit from the relevant financial year or years, supported by the specified evidence. Turnover, personal withdrawals and the current bank balance answer different questions.

At Knightsbridge, our approach to spouse visa applications is to establish the financial category and evidence period before deciding whether the figures support an application. That avoids building a substantial document pack around the wrong calculation.

Confirm the business structure and whose income can count

This article focuses on UK sole traders and ordinary partnerships. First establish how the business operates. A sole trader works for themselves. In an ordinary partnership, the partners share the profits and each pays tax on their own share.

Calling yourself a freelancer, contractor or business owner does not settle that question. Check the registration, tax returns and accounts. Someone invoicing through a limited company may need a different assessment from someone trading personally.

Specified limited-company income has separate evidential provisions under Appendix FM-SE. Do not use a sole trader checklist simply because you control the company.

The sponsor’s qualifying self-employment income can be considered. The applicant’s income under this approach is relevant where they are already in the UK with permission to work; the work itself must be permitted.

Also confirm the applicable financial test. The usual minimum income requirement is currently £29,000, but transitional provisions and specified disability or carer benefits can change the assessment.

Choose between Category F and Category G

Category F uses the last full financial year. Category G uses the mean average of the last two full financial years. For UK sole traders and partnerships, the relevant tax years normally run from 6 April to 5 April.

For example, for an application prepared in October 2026, the most recently completed UK tax year is 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026. The preceding year is 2024/25. Write those dates at the top of your evidence plan before requesting documents.

This simple step prevents a common practical mismatch: collecting recent bank statements while asking the accountant for figures covering an entirely different period.

Compare both calculations before choosing. Averaging can help where profits have fallen, but it can also dilute a stronger recent year. The choice should follow the eligible figures and available evidence, rather than an assumption that two years always looks more convincing.

A useful working note records the category, the year or years relied upon, the profit for each year and the documents supporting each amount. Anyone reviewing the application should be able to follow that calculation without reconstructing it from scattered attachments.

Identify profit rather than turnover or drawings

Paragraph 19(b) of Appendix FM-SE focuses on gross taxable profits from the person’s share of the business. The whole partnership’s results are not automatically one partner’s income.

HMRC distinguishes turnover from taxable profit: allowable business expenses reduce the amount on which Income Tax is calculated. Money taken from the business for personal use is not an allowable business expense.

That distinction matters when looking at bank statements. A large receipt could relate to work with substantial associated costs. A transfer between your own accounts does not, by itself, explain how much the business earned.

Ask your accountant to reconcile the accounts, tax return and calculation. If the figures differ, establish why. Avoid selecting the largest number from one document and presenting it without explaining its relationship to the others.

Our view is that a clear reconciliation often contributes more than another bundle of invoices. It allows the reviewer to understand the claimed income and where it appears in the records.

A worked example: higher turnover, lower qualifying profit

Consider a hypothetical sole trader sponsoring their spouse in October 2026. Assume the £29,000 threshold applies, the business continues trading and the figures below represent qualifying profits, with no further adjustments needed.

Under Category F, the figure is £26,000. That leaves a £3,000 shortfall against the assumed threshold.

Under Category G, the calculation is £36,000 plus £26,000, divided by two. The resulting average is £31,000, which exceeds that threshold.

The business has increased its turnover, but its most recent profit has fallen. Looking only at the £100,000 sales figure would conceal the issue. Looking only at the latest profit would miss the potential significance of the two-year calculation.

This example does not establish that a real application would succeed. Both years must be properly evidenced, the income must qualify and the remaining requirements must be met. It illustrates why the category decision should come before the application date is fixed.

If the order of those profits were reversed, the latest £36,000 year would be stronger than the £31,000 average. The sensible exercise is to compare the available calculations, not automatically favour the longer history.

Bring the tax records and business evidence together

The core requirements in paragraph 7 include the relevant Self Assessment return and SA300 or SA302, tax payable/paid/unpaid evidence, UTR details, HMRC registration evidence if available, personal statements and any separate business-account statements for the required period.

HMRC makes SA302 calculations available after a return has been submitted. A tax year overview can also be obtained. Check what you have downloaded: a calculation, a return and an overview are different records.

Additional business evidence must satisfy paragraph 7(h). Where unaudited accounts are used, the required accountant’s certificate and qualifying professional membership matter.

Give the accountant a clear request explaining the application category and relevant years. “Please send proof of income” is often too vague for a document request involving several distinct records.

Check names, UTRs, dates and amounts across the pack. For partnerships, make the person’s share identifiable. Where business and personal accounts interact, explain the transfers rather than expecting the reviewer to infer their purpose.

Our guide to organising and uploading visa evidence can help with presenting the finished material. Organisation supports the assessment, but it cannot replace a required document or resolve an unexplained figure.

Ongoing trading also needs evidence. One permitted example is a bank statement dated within three months before application showing continuing business transactions.

An old profitable year and a current trading record serve different purposes. Check both. If the business has stopped, changed structure or transferred to a company, reassess the position before relying on its earlier results.

Plan around the evidence date, not just the tax deadline

The normal online Self Assessment deadline for 2025/26 is 31 January 2027. Returns can be submitted earlier, after the tax year ends.

For an October 2026 visa application, waiting until January may therefore be incompatible with the evidence you need. Home Office guidance expressly recognises that filing may need to follow the immigration timetable rather than the tax deadline.

There is an additional complication where the business accounts do not match the tax year. HMRC’s basis period reforms can require profits to be apportioned between accounting periods, and some businesses still have transition-profit adjustments.

If that affects you, ask for an explanation linking the accounts to the tax return. A tax adjustment should be identified and assessed before it is included in the immigration calculation. Do not assume that every figure labelled “profit” describes the same period or treatment.

For a recently established business, obtain advice on the completed period and evidence actually available. A promising forecast is useful for business planning, but it should not be mistaken for the historical evidence required for this financial category.

Check combinations before trying to fill a shortfall

Other permitted income may be combined under Category F or G, but it must relate to the same financial year or years and remain an income source at application. Current cash savings cannot top up these categories.

That means a new salary, an older profit figure and a savings balance should not simply be added together. Establish the permitted treatment of each source first.

Where the calculation falls short, assess alternatives carefully: another permitted income category, independently sufficient qualifying savings, or a later application supported by a different completed period. The right option depends on the evidence and any immigration deadline.

Before applying, you should be able to explain which period counts, whose profit is relied upon, how the calculation works and which documents establish it. If those points remain unclear, request a Case Assessment so the financial position can be assessed before you commit to submission.