What expenses can I claim as a Landlord

petes wrote: »

as a landlord with one property I tend to do all the maintenance on the house myself. With the abolition of the wear and tear allowance I now have to claim on actual expenses that i incur on the property which is fine, However as an example if I were to get a decorator to paint a room for say £500 I could add that as an expense but because I do the painting myself the only expense I incur is the cost of the paint, say £50, so I can only put £50 as an expense. Is there any way I can charge a reasonable cost for the amount of time spent doing the painting ?
Any advice greatly received

No- you can only claim monetary expenses, not for the time spent.

In simple terms, if you paid a decorator then they would be paying income tax on the £500 (less £50 paint and other expenses). So you can claim tax back on the £500 as the decorator has paid tax on that so the gvt is flat.

If you 'pay yourself £500' for the time then you can't claim tax back on that because no one has paid tax on that in the first place. You could set up a company and you as the LL pay your painting company £500. The company pays tax on the £500 which you as the LL can claim back.. so back to square one.

Another way to think of it.. the £500 decorator's charge could be thought of as
£50 paint/supplies
£367 for the decorator's time painting
£83 tax (assuming 20% tax rate)

Either you pay a decorator £500 and claim £83 tax back so net cost £417 or you spend £50 on paint and assume your time is worth the same as a decorator's and count £367 for your time painting so net £417. Same thing.