The 1099 form itself is largely beside the point. What a lender actually underwrites is your tax return. The return, personal or business, shows the income you reported, the expenses you wrote off, and the net income left after those write-offs. Certain add-backs help you here. Depreciation, for example, is a paper loss that lowers your taxable income without reducing the actual cash you have available for a mortgage payment, so underwriters add it back in. Two people with identical gross 1099 income can qualify very differently depending on how aggressively they file. For a standard conventional loan, plan on providing your tax returns rather than just the 1099s, along with the usual documentation of the business itself. There is a separate category of non-QM loans that will lend on 1099 income more directly, typically at a higher rate and with a larger down payment, often in the range of 10 to 20 percent. Those can fit someone whose write-offs make the tax returns look thin, but program terms change, so confirm current requirements before counting on one. For most borrowers, the tax return is the document that matters, and cleaning up how you file, well before you apply, is the single highest-leverage move you can make to qualify for more.