Tutoring, summer school and coaching: does the extra income count?

Board-paid work such as summer school or coaching is the easiest second income to add, because it appears on your board T4 alongside your salary. Private tutoring can count as well, but it normally needs about two years of history declared on your tax return. Cash tutoring that was never declared cannot be used.

A lot of teachers have a second income and assume it is invisible to a lender. Some of it is genuinely usable and materially changes what you qualify for. The dividing line is documentation, not the type of work.

The easiest case: it is on your board T4

Summer school, night school, board-paid coaching stipends and department head allowances usually flow through the same employer and land on the same T4 as your salary. That is the simplest possible evidence. A lender can see it, tie it to your existing employer and, where it has a track record, include it.

Even here, expect a lender to want to see it across two years rather than a single unusually busy summer.

Private tutoring and self-employment

Tutoring you invoice yourself is self-employment income. It usually needs about two years declared on your tax return, generally via a T2125, supported by your Notices of Assessment. Lenders will typically work from the net figure after expenses rather than gross receipts.

This is where teachers are most often disappointed. Undeclared cash tutoring cannot be used. There is no version of a mortgage application where a lender counts income that does not exist on your tax return, and you should be wary of anyone who suggests otherwise.

What each type needs

• Board-paid extra duties: two years of T4s, and your employment letter ideally referencing the ongoing role.
• Private tutoring: two years of T2125 filings plus matching Notices of Assessment.
• Tutoring through an agency: T4 or T4A depending on how they engage you, plus two years of history.
• Coaching stipends: usually on the board T4, treated as variable, averaged.

Is it worth chasing?

Run the number before you reorganise your life around it. Roughly every $6,000 of reliably documented additional annual income adds somewhere near $30,500 of mortgage at current qualifying rates. That can be the difference between two neighbourhoods, or it can be immaterial. It is worth knowing which before you take on another season of coaching for mortgage reasons.

Common questions