Skip to main content

Income Verifications

tip

This page now focuses on the income verification questions by document type. Reference the Verification List page to review the overall selection of verifications and their supported documents. You can find the extracted data specifications for consumer documents and dealer documents at their respective links.

These questions represent the default questions for verifications and documents that can be used to augment your organization's funding rules or checklists. The questions and their associated answers are included in the verifications response passed back to your webhook.

tip

The number of days used in certain questions are configurable based on what is listed.

Income Verification Questions​

Proof of Income​

Income​

  • Is the applicant’s income inline with what they stated?
  • Which document was used to calculate income?
  • What is the income from the employer?
  • What is the income from the second employer?
  • What is the SSI income?
  • What is the self-employed income?

Current Paystub​

  • Matches the applicant's name?
  • Has YTD earnings?
  • Similar to a paystub known to be fraudulent?  (in the future only available through Informed Defender)
  • Issued within *15/30/60/90 days of the contract date?
  • Matches the applicant's employer name?
  • Garnishments deducted?
  • Loans deducted?
  • Methodology used to calculate the first working day of the year?
  • First working day of the year?
  • Working days elapsed?
  • Has tips?

Year-End Paystub​

  • Matches the applicant’s name?
  • Has YTD earnings?
  • Similar to a paystub known to be fraudulent?  (in the future only available through Informed Defender)
  • Issued at the end of last year?
  • Methodology used to calculate the first working day of the year?
  • First working day of the year?
  • Working days elapsed?

Individual Tax Return (Form 1040)​

  • Matches the applicant’s name?
  • From the most recent tax year?  (future question)
  • Contains a Schedule C?  (future question)
  • Contains a Schedule B?  (future question)
  • Contains a Schedule D?  (future question)
  • Contains a Schedule E?  (future question)
  • Contains a Schedule F?  (future question)
  • Lists W-2 Wages?  (future question)

SSI Award Letter​

  • Matches the applicant’s name?
  • Issued within *30/365 days of the contract date?
  • What is the SSI income?

Bank Statement​

  • Matches the applicant’s name?
  • Did the applicant supply the required number of consecutive bank statements?
  • Issued within *30/45/60 days of the contract date?
  • Excessive overdrafts?
  • Has deposit(s) from the SSA?
  • What are the salient deposits from last *1/2/3 month(s)?

Prior Year W-2​

  • Matches the applicant’s name?
  • Prior year W-2?
caution

At a high level, there are three requirements for W-2's to be used as an acceptable document to calculate income. The expected behavior of W-2's is as follows:

  1. The contract/application date is within the first 90 days of the year
  2. There must be a current paystub present (within the normal recency period of the application)
  3. There is a prior-year W-2 present (or year-end paystub - meaning a paystub from the last pay period of the year)

If any of these three requirements are not satisfied, the W-2 will not be used for income calculation -- and if there are no other satisfactory income supporting documents, then the overall income stip will be flagged as missing or review appropriately.

One other thing to note is that if a W-2 and a recent paystub are both present, but the recent paystub better satisfies the applicant's stated income claims (maybe they got a new job or a promotion in the new year), then the current paystub will be used as the most relevant document.

If the W-2 is the most relevant supporting document, we use the Medicare wages field value as the amount for comparison to stated annual income (represented in the verification level questions above).

Military LES​

  • What is the applicant's military branch?
  • Is the LES recently issued, specifically within *60/120 days of the contract’s date?
  • Is the Applicant’s name listed on the LES?