SA302: what it is and how to get yours

An SA302 is HMRC's official tax calculation for one tax year, showing the income you declared and the tax due on it. You download it from your HMRC online account, and it must be sent with the matching tax year overview — a lender or the Home Office will reject it on its own.

It is the document every mortgage lender, and most visa applications, ask the self-employed for. Getting it is straightforward. Getting it accepted depends on what you send alongside it.

What an SA302 actually shows

An SA302 — HMRC calls it a tax calculation — sets out, for a single tax year, the income you declared, the allowances applied and the tax and National Insurance that resulted. It is not a statement of what you earned in the ordinary sense; it is a statement of what you told HMRC, after allowable expenses.

That distinction matters when a lender compares it to your bank statements. A sole trader who turned over £70,000 and claimed £20,000 of costs has an SA302 showing £50,000 — the correct figure, and the one affordability is assessed on.

Getting it from HMRC

1. Sign in to your HMRC online account with your Government Gateway details.
2. Go to Self Assessment, then to your returns and tax calculations.
3. Choose the tax year you need and open the tax calculation. Save it as a PDF rather than photographing the screen.
4. Go back and open the tax year overview for the same year. This is a separate document and you need both.
5. Repeat for every year requested. Check the years actually match what you were asked for.

If you have lost access to the Government Gateway account, start the recovery early — it can involve a code by post, and that is a week nobody budgets for.

Why the tax year overview matters so much

The SA302 says what the tax should be. The tax year overview says what HMRC actually has on record for that year: the return received, the amounts charged, what has been paid.

On its own, a tax calculation proves very little — it is what a return would produce. Together, the two documents show that the return was genuinely filed and that the figures on it are the figures HMRC holds. That is what an underwriter is checking, and it is why a pack containing only SA302s comes back.

Why documents get rejected

• The overview is missing, or is for a different year than the calculation.
• The return was amended after the calculation was printed, so the two documents disagree.
• The return has not been processed yet — filed, but not yet reflected.
• The years are wrong. Tax years run to 5 April, and people routinely gather calendar years instead.
• It is a screenshot rather than the document, or a photograph of a screen.
• The income does not support the application, which is a different problem and not one more paperwork solves.

The evidence pack

Where the request comes from a lender, a landlord or the Home Office, the SA302 is rarely enough on its own. A complete pack usually contains:

• SA302 tax calculations for the years requested
• The tax year overview matching each one
• An accountant's letter confirming income, drawn strictly from returns actually filed
• Business and personal bank statements for the period
• Management accounts for the current, unfiled year
• For company directors: accounts, dividend vouchers and payslips

Everything we state is factual and evidenced from filed returns. We will not certify figures we cannot support — an income letter that overstates is worthless to you the moment it is checked, and damaging when it is not.

Two limits worth stating plainly

We do not give immigration advice and are not regulated to: we prepare the financial documents, and work alongside your regulated adviser on whether they meet the requirements of the route you are applying under. And we do not express a view on whether a bank will lend — that is the underwriter's decision, not ours.

What we do stand behind is the paperwork. If a lender or the Home Office queries a document we prepared, we correct and reissue it free, and handle the follow-up questions ourselves.

If you have not filed the returns yet

No return means no SA302, and this is the moment most people discover it. Where returns are outstanding we can usually file them quickly — but the 31 January deadline, HMRC's processing time and any penalties already accrued all sit between you and the document. If an application has a date on it, start now rather than at the point the lender asks.

Figures are for the tax year shown and change every April. They are general information, not advice — we check the current position for your circumstances before anything is filed.

Reviewed 19 October 2026.

Part of our work on self-employment and self assessment — if you want someone to take it off your hands, start with our Self Assessment accountant page.