New landlord tax questions
Posted: July 9th, 2017, 11:10 am
We moved from London to Italy, where my wife comes from, several years ago. I kept the London flat, and we were using it ourselves from time to time, until last year we decided to let it. Now I am preparing my UK tax return and I am not sure about how to do it. It may be that I need to use an accountant, at least for this first year, and it may be that I should really have got more informed before now, but, well here we are.
I suppose that I will need to tell the tax man how much I rent I received, what expenses I had, and also how much the agency has deducted and presumably already sent him. (I am aware that I could have arranged to be exempt from the tax deduction because I am resident abroad, but I haven't done this because even if it were to reduce the UK tax I would still have to pay Italian tax. Italian tax is always higher than UK, but one deducts any tax actually paid in UK.)
I asked the agency for summary statements of these amounts, and after a couple of tries I think they have sent me all the numbers I need. I'm a bit surprised that they didn't have the figures ready, especially the tax they have paid, because presumably every landlord needs to know this. Shouldn't they have some sort of receipt from the Revenue to confirm the total for the year? And will there be a box on my online tax return where I put this number?
I am also uncertain about what I can claim as expenses. Presumably all the agency fees and VAT on that, and the various repairs that have been done since letting started. Can I also claim for building work and the furnishing that I also paid for via the agency, before the first tenancy?
I suppose that I will need to tell the tax man how much I rent I received, what expenses I had, and also how much the agency has deducted and presumably already sent him. (I am aware that I could have arranged to be exempt from the tax deduction because I am resident abroad, but I haven't done this because even if it were to reduce the UK tax I would still have to pay Italian tax. Italian tax is always higher than UK, but one deducts any tax actually paid in UK.)
I asked the agency for summary statements of these amounts, and after a couple of tries I think they have sent me all the numbers I need. I'm a bit surprised that they didn't have the figures ready, especially the tax they have paid, because presumably every landlord needs to know this. Shouldn't they have some sort of receipt from the Revenue to confirm the total for the year? And will there be a box on my online tax return where I put this number?
I am also uncertain about what I can claim as expenses. Presumably all the agency fees and VAT on that, and the various repairs that have been done since letting started. Can I also claim for building work and the furnishing that I also paid for via the agency, before the first tenancy?