By Josh Tagg, mortgage broker · Mortgages for Less with INDI Mortgage · Calgary, serving all of Alberta ·
Leah* is a self-employed web developer in Calgary. Most of her income comes from one company in the United States, which pays her a monthly retainer. She bills it in US dollars, and the money arrives in her Canadian bank account in Canadian dollars. In June 2025, she and her partner Ben* bought their first home, a $640,000 house in southwest Calgary, with the smallest down payment allowed at that price. The lender qualified her on her Canadian tax returns.
Can you get a mortgage in Calgary when your income comes from a US client?
Yes, if you live in Canada and the income is on your Canadian tax return. Leah runs her business as a sole proprietor, so every payment from her US client is reported to the Canada Revenue Agency as Canadian business income. That’s what the lender looked at. The currency on her invoices didn’t change how the income was counted.
She had been self-employed since 2016, with one large retainer client making up most of her work. She told Josh on their first call that her income was steady, not the feast-or-famine pattern a lot of self-employed people deal with. Her tax returns backed that up.
How did the lender count her income?
The same way it counts any sole proprietor’s income: from her personal tax returns and Notices of Assessment. For self-employed borrowers, lenders usually average the two most recent years, and that’s what happened here.
| Tax year | Total income (line 15000) | Net business income |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $144,485 | — |
| 2023 | $167,327 | $166,293 |
| 2024 | $182,743 | $181,908 |
| Used to qualify | — | $174,101 |
The qualifying figure is the average of her 2023 and 2024 net business income. Total income also includes a small amount of bank interest.
Two things made her returns easy for a lender to rely on. Her taxes were paid in full: she paid by instalments every year, and her balance with the CRA was zero when she applied. And her income had gone up each year, so averaging two years didn’t pull it down.
Ben is paid hourly by a family business. When you work for family, lenders want two years of T4s and use the lower year, because a letter from a relative isn’t treated as independent proof. His lower year was $46,113. Together, they qualified for far more than they planned to spend.
What did they need to show?
For the income: her T1 returns and Notices of Assessment for 2022 to 2024, and a statement from her CRA account showing nothing owing. There were no US tax forms in the file. She is a Canadian resident paid as a contractor, so her Canadian return is the record of her income.
The US client mattered in one other place: the down payment. Lenders ask where large deposits in your bank account came from. Hers were monthly payments from the client, so she matched each deposit to its invoice. Each invoice was billed in US dollars at an hourly rate and paid in Canadian dollars, and she noted that the small balance left on each one was the exchange rate.
What did they buy?
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Purchase price, detached house in southwest Calgary | $640,000 |
| Down payment, about 6.1% | $39,000 |
| Mortgage before insurance | $601,000 |
| Default insurance premium, 4.00%, added to the loan | $24,040 |
| Total mortgage | $625,040 |
3.99%, fixed for five years, over a 25-year amortization. The payment is $3,284.35 a month.
$39,000 is the minimum down payment on a $640,000 home: 5% of the first $500,000 and 10% of the $140,000 above it (Financial Consumer Agency of Canada). It came from her savings and her first home savings account, and a family member gave them $5,000. She didn’t empty every account to buy: she kept her retirement savings and an emergency fund.
Finding the house took two months. They were pre-approved in March 2025 and wanted one small area of the city. In May, Leah told our team there had been five or more competing bids on every house they’d tried for. They made an offer on May 25 that was accepted, with the financing condition due on May 30. The lender’s underwriter had the file under review and was then away. Our team pushed it to another underwriter, and the approval came through on the morning of May 30, with the commitment signed before noon. They took possession on June 20, 2025.
When doesn’t this work?
If the income isn’t on your Canadian tax return, a lender has nothing to count. Income that is paid and kept in an account outside Canada, or that you haven’t declared here, is a much harder file. If you’re unsure whether your foreign income is taxed in Canada, talk to an accountant before you talk to a lender.
If you owe the CRA, deal with it first. Lenders want to see that the tax on your self-employed income has been paid, not just filed.
If you’ve only just started billing a foreign client, you may not have two years of returns to average yet. And exchange rates move: what a US invoice is worth in Canadian dollars can change from month to month, so don’t plan your budget on your best month.
Who to call if this sounds like you. Josh Tagg is a Calgary mortgage broker who has been arranging mortgages across Alberta since 2006. He leads the Mortgages for Less team at INDI Mortgage, took over the brokerage his father founded in 2003, and is licensed by the Real Estate Council of Alberta. The lesson of this file: when your income comes from a client outside Canada, lenders read your Canadian tax return, not your invoices. Declare it, pay the tax on time, keep two years of returns, and a US client is not a barrier to buying here. Read about self-employed mortgages in Calgary. Call (403) 241-3255, book a call, or apply online. It’s free, there’s no credit check to start, and there’s no obligation.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get a mortgage in Canada if my income comes from a US company?
Yes, if you live in Canada and report the income on your Canadian tax return. In this case a self-employed web developer paid by a US client in US dollars qualified on her Canadian returns and bought a $640,000 first home in Calgary.
How do lenders count income from a foreign client?
For a self-employed borrower, from your Canadian personal tax returns, usually averaging the two most recent years. Here the lender used the average of her 2023 and 2024 net business income, $174,101.
Do I need US tax documents to qualify?
Not in this case. She is a Canadian resident paid as a contractor, so her Canadian T1 returns, Notices of Assessment and a CRA statement showing nothing owing were the income documents.
Does it matter that I’m paid in US dollars?
Not for how the income is counted, because the lender uses your Canadian tax return. It matters for the down payment: you may need to match large deposits to the invoices they paid.
Can I buy with less than 20% down if I’m self-employed?
Yes, with an insured mortgage, if your income qualifies. Here the down payment was $39,000 on $640,000, the minimum at that price, and the insurance premium of $24,040 was added to the loan.
What if I owe the CRA?
Pay it before you apply. Lenders want to see that the tax on self-employed income has been paid, not only filed. In this case her balance with the CRA was zero.
Paid by a client outside Canada? Find out how a lender will read your tax returns before you start looking.
*Names and some details have been changed to protect the clients’ privacy. Figures come from the clients’ file and illustrate one case. Your own approval depends on your income, credit, property and lender. This is commentary, not advice. Rates and figures as of June 2025.
