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Monday, July 14, 2008

Landlords tax - don't forget your losses!


I was chatting with my accountant today.

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We were trying to work out in the midst of this crazy mixed up weather that calls itself an English Summer when we could fit in a game of tennis without getting washed away, blown away or incinerated by lightening.

During the conversation we discussed various things relating to property investment. One comment he made was that in his experience many of his clients with buy-to-let property who make a rental loss do not bother with declaring this on their tax return. This is because as they are not making a pofit from their residential investment property they seek to avoid the hassle of computing and submitting these figures.

This view is short sighted. I myself have accumulated over £20,000 worth of rental losses over the years. In the future as rents rise and my buy-to-let mortgage costs fall. I intend to use these rental losses to make sure that I dont pay any tax on my rental profits for a very long time.

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Given how the current government has wasted money over the last decade I intend not to give them any more tax than I have to.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

£20k is a lot of money, i think i would definitely claim that back!!!

Anonymous said...

I never claim rental loss on my tax return but I think I will from now on.

I don't think however it is anywhere near £20,000 like yourself but still going to be worth it.

Hawkeye said...

Landlords will be relieved to know that I did get my game of tennis in. My accountant won - well they always do don't they.

He did mention that landlords can only offset their rental losses against their rental income not any other income.

This is where having your rental property held by a company is useful because you can offset rental losses against that businesses profits.

Holiday homes are another useful tax dodge as rental losses can be offset against your personal income.