Migration Lawyer Loans: Smoothing Volatile Matter Volume
Small-practice immigration work is a volume business that answers to policy, not to the calendar. A visa subclass closes or a sponsorship framework shifts, and next quarter's files simply do not exist. Meanwhile you are the principal, the employer and often the person answering a client call at six in the morning, all before the first billable hour of the day.
A retail credit engine reads a falling turnover year as a business in decline. It cannot see the pipeline, the work in progress or the lodged applications awaiting decision, and it often shades both director salary and company profit in one assessment.
Small-practice credit policy recognises that a professional services company earns unevenly. Lenders holding a professional package typically assess the company tax return alongside two years of personal returns, allow add-backs for one-off costs, and may consider simplified documentation where turnover is volatile.
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| Practice situation | Retail assessment | Small-practice policy | Structure to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turnover down after visa change | Read as business decline | Add-backs and trend review | Two-year average with YTD support |
| Director salary plus trust distribution | Distribution not verified | Both streams assessed | Personal borrowing at higher LVR |
| Agent commission lump in one month | Annualised at face value | One-off treated separately | Base drawings used for serviceability |
| Work in progress on lodged matters | Not recognised at all | YTD statements considered | Provide matter pipeline schedule |
1. Company, Trust and Director Income: What Counts
Where the practice trades through a company, assessors start with the company tax return, then trace income to you as director salary, dividends or trust distributions. Salary is treated like wages, while distributions need two years of personal returns and distribution statements.
Add-backs can repair a volatile year. Depreciation on office fit-out, one-off recruitment costs or a written-off software platform are typically added back to net profit before serviceability is calculated. Where turnover has fallen, an accountant letter plus year-to-date figures often carries more weight than the raw comparative.
2. Documents a Small Practice Must Produce
The documentation set is largely fixed, but presentation matters. Assessors typically want company and personal returns, current business statements, and an accountant letter addressing any material movement in turnover.
- Two years of company tax returns and financial statements: shows turnover, net profit, director drawings and retained earnings across the cycle.
- Two years of personal tax returns: confirms the mix of salary, dividends and trust distributions actually received by each applicant.
- Business bank statements: six months of trading accounts evidencing that fee income is landing consistently rather than in one spike.
- Accountant letter: explains a turnover movement, confirms add-backs, and states that the entity continues to trade solvently.
- Practising certificate and registration: current certificate and registration details verified with the Law Society of NSW or the relevant state body.
- Matter pipeline schedule: a simple list of lodged applications and expected fees, which supports the forward view without overstating it.
3. Pricing, Simplified Documentation and LVR Trade-Offs
For a practice principal, the cheapest facility is not always the one with the lowest advertised rate. A full-document approval at 80 to 90 per cent LVR usually prices at or below standard variable, while simplified documentation typically sits at a lower LVR with a rate loading.
Sequence the application before the current year closes. Case Study: A migration lawyer running a two-solicitor Melbourne practice was approved at 88 per cent LVR on a $980,000 purchase after company turnover fell from $840,000 to $690,000 following a visa subclass change, with a lender adding back $42,000 of one-off costs and averaging two years at $176,000.
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