FWIW, I know of someone who set up a corporation, hired themselves, funneled some of their savings through the corporation back to themselves as income, then once they had 3 payslips (what the mortgage companies wanted), they got the mortgage they wanted. They had to pay income taxes on the money, of course, but they could effectively create any level of income they wanted that way.

Thankfully I didn't have to go to such crazy extremes. I went to a mortgage broker and they somehow made the mortgage company happy with three years of tax returns (on a normal, non-self-approved rate too).