source:
  type: guide
  id: fnma-sel-b3-3.6-01
  authority: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.6-01 — General Information on Analyzing
    Individual Tax Returns
  description: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.6-01 — General Information on Analyzing
    Individual Tax Returns.
  coverage_tier: operative
obligations:
- id: fnma-sel-b3-3.6-01-full
  canonical_id: fnma-sel-b3-3.6-01-full
  section: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.6-01 — General Information on Analyzing Individual
    Tax Returns
  type: do
  tags:
  - regulator-direct
  - fnma
  - selling-guide
  - corpus-expansion
  - tier-operative
  primary_source:
    tier: 1
    authority: Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.6-01 — General Information on Analyzing
      Individual Tax Returns
    source_class: fnma-guide
    source_url: https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/document/pdf/selling-guide
    snapshot_id: 5f7b8b79da595d76
    fetched_at: '2026-05-25T14:09:57Z'
    content_hash: sha256:98cf85a02861bbe84914a0e339b327c8fc131869a8a573882007bbeea60c5701
    paragraph_quote: 'B3-3.6-01, General Information on Analyzing Individual Tax Returns
      (06/05/2019) Introduction This topic contains general information on analyzing
      individual tax returns. Analyzing Individual Tax Returns Analyzing Individual
      Tax Returns In analyzing a self-employed borrower’s personal income, the lender
      should focus on earnings trends and the actual sources of the income, not just
      on the total amount of the income. The lender must conﬁrm the stability and
      likelihood of continuance for each source of income that the borrower reports
      on their IRS Form 1040. The lender should not include any income that does not
      appear to be stable or likely to continue. The lender should, however, consider
      all recurring income that the borrower can expect to continue receiving over
      time. Income may be considered as recurring if the loan application package
      does not include any speciﬁc indication of an upcoming change in the borrower’s
      employment or income, the borrower’s employment history has no gaps or other
      signiﬁcant ﬂuctuations in income, and any income received under a contractual
      agreement (other than an “at will” contract) will continue to be received for
      at least three years. Published May 6, 2026 373 Examples of recurring income
      include: regular salaries or wages, bonus or commission income that has been
      received on a consistent basis, interest income from long-term investments that
      are not being liquidated in connection with the mortgage transaction, and earnings
      from the operation of the borrower’s business. Any nonrecurring loss (such as
      an extraordinary one-time expense) should not be included in the cash ﬂow analysis;
      therefore, in developing the borrower’s qualifying income, the lender should
      adjust the borrower’s cash ﬂow by the amount of any nonrecurring loss. Recent
      Related Announcements The table below provides references to recently issued
      Announcements that are related to this topic. Announcements Issue Date Announcement
      SEL-2019-05 June 05, 2019'
  judgment: false
