HMRC now has landlords in their sights

Residential property lettingsHMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs) has announced some new initiatives over the course of the last month and one of these is The Let Property campaign which is a campaign designed to recover undeclared tax from those receiving income from residential property lets. The idea is to encourage those landlords with under-declared income or gains (potentially including income tax, Capital Gains Tax and VAT) to contact them in order to make a full disclosure. By doing so they may well avoid the higher penalties which may be applied to them should HMRC discover the undeclared income/gains via other means. Don’t forget that they now have access to information shared across systems, including in relation to properties both at home and abroad, as well as being gained through their digital intelligence system ‘Connect’ which identifies links between individuals, entities and properties. So the message to landlords is loud and clear!

The campaign applies to landlords whether they have just a single property or a large portfolio of properties and encompasses lets to students, business workforces and the holiday market. HMRC state that there is an underpayment of around £500 million from the 1½ million or so landlords who are currently underpaying in the UK – and that’s every year as things currently stand, so represents an important opportunity for HMRC to gain missed revenues.

Are you a landlord who needs to sort things out? Or perhaps you do not know whether or not you have undeclared income/gains or under-declared tax in respect of your residential lettings activities. Either way you may well benefit from professional advice and Taxfile, based in South London, are experts in this field so can really help to sort things out properly. Call +44 (0)208 761 8000, contact us or read more about accountancy help for landlords at our main website here.