FLR(M) Paypal statements as evidence of self employed income

[locke81]

Hi, my wife will apply for FLR(M) visa in Sept. I'm her sponsor and self employed, with all earnings being paid directly into my Paypal account from around five different clients and organisations I work with. These earnings are then mostly held in Paypal, with occasional transfers to my bank account when needed. From business and personal expenses point of view it has worked well this way. However, we've recently learnt that the HO may not accept Paypal statements in evidencing income, as Paypal themselves are not a bank and will not issue official statements and so I'll have to print online statements from my account. I should've been transferring my Paypal income to my bank each time I got paid, but now we're out of the 2015-2016 tax year I understand it's too late to do this to show earnings during that year. We've spoken to HO advisers on phone on several occasions, receiving conflicting advice ranging from it being likely visa will be denied, to being advised to have a qualified accountant write up accounts and certify online printed statements, then the case worker should be able to accept the statements. My earnings are legitimate, I'm registered with HMRC, pay NI contributions etc. We wonder if anyone here has had experience of submitting online printed Paypal statements in a FLR application? Is there anything beyond having an accountant write up accounts and certify online printed statements that we could do to ensure the HO is happy with the earnings evidence we provide? We're obviously quite worried, so if anyone has any advice, insights or suggestions on how we can make this work with the HO, it'd be greatly appreciated. Thank you.