Renting a Room

pollyanna24

If you are renting a room out, but not all the time, but say when someone happens to be in town, and they are giving you money, do you have to declare it?

We have someone who sometimes stays with us during the week, never at weekends, and we get £25 a night for it. For this we provide a bed and food. Could we say the £25 was for food?

I'm not trying to avoid tax cos I seriously don't think it will ever go over the threshold, but it seems a lot of hassle to fill in a tax return and find all our paye payslips just to notify the IR that once in a while someone stays with us.

thesaint

You can receive £4250 without having to declare it to HMRC.
You are above the threshold if you have them 5 days a week 52 weeks a year.

Google 'rent a room' I can't post links for some unknown reason.

Melissa177

Plus, you don't have to declare anything to the tax man or register it, as long as your "rent a room" is less than £4250 a year (£350 a month roughly).

Good luck!

sexy_fufu

Poly why dont you charge him less and ask him buy some food or get a reciept for the food, then i think its not classed as the same.

Im not sure but thats how i would do it.

pollyanna24

It's a set amount that his company will give us for him staying at ours. He has to produce an invoice to them which is why I thought we might have to declare it.

They figure it's cheaper than finding him a hotel and he won't get so "lonely" if he stays with us. He's works in a different part of the country, but is needed in London every now and again.

It most certainly won't be every week of every month, so I doubt very much we'll go over the threshold.

So I don't have to do anything then? Just take the money and smile?

Melissa177

Just take the money and smile!

nifferwilko

Look on the direct gov website (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/TaxOnPropertyAndRentalIncome/DG_4017804). As the above posters say, you can rent out a room under the rent-a-room scheme and earn £4250 without having to declare any of it