Asset and Income Modeler (AIM) - General FAQ

Employment data from payroll reports and asset reports, including employment-only reports (e.g. VOE using payroll or asset data) can be used. In addition, data from digitized paystubs and W-2s is also eligible.

The close-by date is calculated by the AIM capability in Loan Product Advisor^® (LPA) (report date + 14 calendar days). To get the report date, AIM will use the following for the different data sources:

• Payroll reports: Report Date or Pay Period End Date
• Asset reports: Asset as of Date
• Digitized paystubs: Paystub Check Date or Pay Period End Date

Refreshing an income or asset verification report to get an updated close-by date may impact the employment and income representation and warranty eligibility result, as income or assets will be reassessed upon resubmission to LPA.

Leveraging an employment-only verification report (e.g., VOE using payroll or asset data) will produce a new close-by date without impacting the income representation and warranty relief eligibility.

When using digitized paystubs and W-2s as the data source, you can submit a more recent paystub to AIM Check API and resubmit to LPA if the close-by date has passed. However, income will be reassessed upon resubmission to LPA.

For existing AIM users, the employment representation and warranty relief functionality was implemented on October 13, 2024.

For potential AIM users, you can contact an AIM service provider to begin ordering asset or payroll reports (including employment-only reports) and submit to LPA, or inquire about our digitized paystub and W-2 capability.

To find more information on AIM for employment, please refer to the AIM Releases & Resources webpage and Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide (Guide) Section 5302.6.

Integrations with AIM Check API and LPA are required (all active LPA specifications support this offering).

Freddie Mac-approved Sellers and verified service providers should contact their Freddie Mac representative to learn more about integrating with the API.

Data must be extracted from the borrower’s paystub(s) and W-2 form(s) using your own optical character recognition (OCR) technology or a vendor-supplied technology. The data and report ID must then be submitted to AIM Check API to get a preliminary view of the income calculation. Submit the report ID used in the API to LPA to have AIM assess the previously submitted data for representation and warranty relief eligibility. The results of the assessment will be provided on the LPA Feedback Certificate.

No, OCR data cannot be submitted to LPA without the use of the AIM Check API at this time.

Borrower name, Social Security number, LP Key and closing date are required.

No. The certificate is returned only when the loan is eligible for income R&W relief. If not eligible, the response JSON file will contain exception messaging.

Sellers should follow the normal AIM approval process to use digitized paystubs and W-2s through AIM Check API and then would be subject to an additional approval for the closed loan (or post-closing) functionality. Guide requirements can be found in Section 5303.4. Sellers should contact their Freddie Mac representative or call Customer Service (800-FREDDIE) for more details and to request Freddie Mac’s approval to submit closed loan data to the API.

AIM for income using tax data from tax returns provided by the borrower simplifies the income calculation process by using optical character recognition (OCR) technology to read and organize the data, while significantly reducing transcription errors.

When tax transcripts are obtained from a service provider with a direct IRS connection, AIM for income using tax data automates the income calculation of the borrower’s income reported on IRS Schedule C.

When the Freddie Mac Income Calculator is used, a Freddie Mac Income Calculator Certificate is produced which will show representation and warranty relief eligibility for each business. The calculator can be used independently, or the data can be submitted to LPA to determine representation and warranty relief eligibility.

LPA’s income calculations are based on the Schedule Analysis Method from Freddie Mac Form 91. However, LPA also considers other factors in its assessment, including stability, historical trends and consistency.

Note: If a business is excluded from the Income Calculation Report (e.g., recently closed business), LPA will exclude the income from that business.

Yes. In LPA, you must select the self-employed indicator and include the unique reference number (report ID) assigned by the service provider, which should be shown either on the Income Calculation Report or the tax transcript. For more details, see the AIM for income using tax data job aid.

LPA only accepts one report ID on the loan. The report ID relates to only one Form 1040 for each applicable calendar year and may be associated with up to two borrowers if they filed jointly.

Only one tax report ID will be assessed, so it is important to only submit the one you want to use.

If you access LPA through system-to-system (S2S) integration, submitting more than one will not cause a hard stop on the entire loan. However, only the first report ID that you entered in the system will be assessed.

If you access LPA via Freddie Mac Gateway^SM, you'll receive a popup error if you attempt to submit the loan with two report IDs. Clicking “OK” in the popup error will clear the report ID field. You should add only the specific report ID that you want to be assessed to the field and resubmit.

LPA will only assess the income for the borrower on the loan.

If using borrower-provided tax returns and the borrower used different business names on the Schedule C in different years, the service provider will treat them as two different businesses. This means that it will appear as if there is only one year of tax returns for each of those businesses when submitting to LPA.

If this happens and the different names reported on the Schedule C are for the same business, you may contact the service provider support team to request reprocessing of the tax returns as one business. After reprocessing, you must resubmit to LPA.

This option is not available when using tax transcripts.

Yes, you can use LPA through Freddie Mac Gateway to submit report IDs.

If you use AIM for income using tax data and rental income is submitted in LPA, feedback messages related to the assessment of rental income will automatically be returned.

This enhancement is currently supported by LoanLogics^® (LoanBeam^® product).

No. However, to participate you will need an appropriate contract in place with a designated third-party service provider for this enhancement. You remain responsible for conducting your own due diligence of any such provider to ensure it meets your company’s needs and requirements.