solely cash savings when self-employed

[thplbt]

Hi all

I wonder if someone could confirm something pretty basic for me. Me (a UK citizen) and my partner (S. Korean, soon to be my wife) are currently resident in the UK, but her tier 5 visa expires in December.

I'm self-employed and I've spent days reading through the financial requirements doc, worrying as I may not quite be able to patch together the £18600 from income over the past couple of years. Until now, I thought cash savings could only be used to support employment etc, but just I saw one paragraph I hadn't noticed -

"A self employed person, or a director of a specified limited company in the UK, who has the necessary level of current cash savings can use these savings as their sole means of meeting the financial requirement."

I found it strange that there was no other reference to this anywhere in the doc. Everywhere else it implies cash savings can only be used to "top up" your income amount in certain circumstances.

So my question is - if I am self employed, can I definitely meet the financial requirements purely through cash savings (£62500)? And if so, is there any advantage to submitting self-employed income details etc as well or will the evidence of the savings for 6 months suffice?

Again, sorry this is such a basic question, hope someone can help

[Casa]

It you have held the £62,500 savings in an accessible account for the last 6 months then you can apply using this as the sole qualification.

[Obie]

However case savings below 62500 cannot be used to cover shortfalls in self-employment earnings.

[thplbt]

Yes that's great, thanks for getting back so quickly. I have savings over that, so should be okay.

Just to confirm, if I apply with savings only, I wouldn't include employment details at all on the application?

Thanks!

[Casa]

There's no requirement to.

[Obie]

There's no requirement to.

Although an applicant will be required to show by means of evidence or declaration that the funds were lawfully obtained. So it could well be the case that self employed income from which taxes were not properly paid could be discarded ..

[thplbt]

Thanks for the all the information. Very much appreciated.