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HMRC change of heart is good news for landlords - claim

Landlords have been given a boost from an unlikely source - HM Revenue & Customs.

HMRC has given landlords and other businesses a further year to prepare for its controversial Making Tax Digital initiative, which was to have applied to investors who submit self-assessment forms with a business or personal income over £10,000 a year in the tax year beginning April 2023.

This initiative has now been extended by 12 months.

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HMRC says it has made the decision following feedback from property portfolio landlords - those with multiple properties - as well as from other business sectors. 

This is all good news for the rental sector according to Angus Stewart, chief executive of online buy to let mortgage broker Property Master.

"For a typical landlord Making Tax Digital will move them from making one tax submission a year to having to file five - one every quarter and one at the end.  The new deadline of April 2024 instead of 2023 will be some respite” he says.

"Our advice though to landlords is to use this time wisely.  Begin by keeping good income and expenditure records every quarter from now if you don’t already do this and think about sourcing software that can help.  

“Our fear is that Making Tax Digital will have passed many landlords by as an issue they need to prepare for not just in terms of the additional time it will take but resources in the form of software and possibly the added support of an accountant."

 

 

Under Making Tax Digital - whenever it eventually comes into force - landlords will need to send HMRC quarterly updates of their income and expenses.  

At the end of the year, instead of sending in a self-assessment tax forma landlord will sign a declaration that their quarterly returns are accurate. They will then have until January 31 the following year to pay their tax, as usual.

Landlords will have up to a month after the end of every quarter to send in their MTD information.  A declaration that the filings are correct must be signed by January 31 following the end of the tax year that the return applies to.

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    "HMRC gas"?

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    Get Accounts Straight (gas, typo / has).

  • Roger  Mellie

    Yes but can any of them drive a lorry?

  • Philip Drake

    The software needed will be for a non-trivial cost. Much like the Digital VAT software. From free (manually) to at least £40 per quarter.

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    I think it will be a huge cost but £40. for software seems very reasonable. I will need an Account to do it even if I had the slight inclination of doing it, Its not possible my life is already over loaded with other freebie time to comply with other regulations to Authorities. How much time do they think we have or how do they think we will have time to be LL’s our primary function.
    This is completely a different Industry loaded on top of us, do they think it’s going to improve housing ?. I am already paying thousands for Accountancy and that’s for once a year so now they are going to quadruple the cost to me and think it’s nothing, waste of time sending them to Uni’.
    In the real world the suits will charge you more than £40. for answering the phone. Just as well its put back to 2024 hopefully I won’t be a LL by then or even be around putting up with this torture.

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    I do as much as I can myself with my accounts totaling every thing up and laving it out then it goes off to my accountant who checks it and files it with HMRC on my behalf, that costs me £600 , so come 2024 that is likely to be costing me £600 x 4, £2400 , another cost to be passed on to my tenants.

     
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    Same as that only mine over £3k + vat we have to have all the records like when I was vat registered I had to maintain 3 books too much I gave it up a mugs game. Now for lettings record of income, Bank statement, expenditure, receipts, licensing costs , Insurance incl’ 12%tax, c/tax where applicable, also on vacant periods, maintenance, gas boiler Certs & service costs, DEICR, Alarm certs, emergency lights certs, Pat tests, endless amount of stuff otherwise Accountants can’t do their job, so we have to do everything in order first and then they have to corollate everything again into a proper Accounts format. The whole thing is too much administration so now just make it 4 times worse. Something serious wrong when the admin & regs becomes such a burden it destroyed the business it’s supposed to be supplementary to.

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    Don’t forget every time a Tenant moves we have a whole load of documents up to 50 pieces of paper to comply with plus Tenancy Contracts, as well as doing all the checking, referencing etc, then obliged to give out going Tenant a reference. Probably several times a year this is all extra to previous blog. When are we supposed to be doing the physical work to the property.

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    Regarding the Fuel crisis if I may comment!
    All the Government had to do was give garages the right as a condition of service to look at the fuel gage, if half full good bye ain’t getting any you are not short.
    Similarly any portable petrol container 5 litres max.
    Problem Solved.

    Bill Wood

    Not a good idea, I can imagine a burly lorry driver giving a tiny garage attendant a pretty hard time if he gets turned away.

     
  • George Dawes

    Probably because they cocked it all up their end and this is damage limitation for their usual incompetence

  • Bill Wood

    Quarterly MTD returns is just so unnecessary. More work, more expense, more possible mistakes, for no good reason I can see

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    Bill my friend of Course it would have work 100% emergency temporary legislation and could have been done, because the law would also apply to the garages and couldn’t serve them if they have more than half a tank. The garage wouldn’t get involved in confrontation not to their discretion and the big burley driver would later get his penalty from the Police in the post. What they are doing now is crippling the economy, causing pollution and traffic jambs unnecessarily totally against the National Interest. I could go from London to Birmingham and back with half a tank and not be short, how far do they want to go most of them currently doodling around town. It didn’t take the Authorities very long to take swift action to stop LL’s evicting did it.
    The other topic I totally agree with you MTD another cost and work load nightmare, we are already knee deep in red tape, they put no value on our time and all for free to them, we pay all.

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    Going into Norwich I have to go round a roundabout with a petrol station on one corner of it, night mare, so now we are taking a right turn which takes right through the University of E A , very busy but we avoid that roundabout and the selfish idiots blocking it

     
  • Peter  Yednell

    My elderly uncle files his own paper return. He has only two BTL's and can cope. The Internet confuses him. Why can't EXISTING landlords with a small turnover of less than (say) £50000 continue to file with paper? Such existing landlords will die out & HMRC can then have its digital convenience. Instead Landlords are being bullied into the xtra expense of having professional accountancy help (& of course all Landlords are rich & can afford it & if any landlord dosent like it then it serves the greedy buggers right for investing in property for their retirement). The HMRC should realise it's there to help tax payers, not bully them.

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    Peter you have a point but late to the party. Computer nightmare for Traditional LL’s like me too, given we were alway able to do everything down through the decades, now making it impossible for us, so Its nothing to do with housing their computers is far more important that should be supplementary to the Business not more important.
    The Biggest problem I now see with housing is the Big Investors, like Institutions and Banks buying whole Blocks or even estates. They have the power and the money for a half percent. In turn renting them back to the individual that they prevented from buying or to the Councils making 3 / 5%, (6 to 10 times their input) laughing all the way. The Government and the Councils needs to wake up and stop those leaches having an easy ride, who have the ear of Government and tax advantages. Why on Earth do Gov’ want to cripple us and prevent first time buyers in favour of them, obviously they are making property more expensive on others because of their purchasing power or the fact they muscled in on Private Housing. Shouldn’t be involved go and run your Bank that we saved for you, instead of closing Branches

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