Tax on Rental income

LEP

If have a tenancy in place that runs from the 1st of the month when it comes to Aprils income do I pro-rata it for this tax year i.e. just declare the 5 days of April for 2012/13 or put the full amount for April in this years taxable income........or does the taxman not really care providing for next tax year I follow the same rules?

Thanks

nomunnofun

If the tenancy starts on 1st April 2013 I would not be including any income as being received in this tax year i.e. before 5th April 2013. HMRC will allow the common sense approach in this instance in a similar manner to those self-employed people who have a 31st March year end which is treated as equivalent to 5th April.

LEP

That makes sense, it starts on the 1st March for my new tenants so I will only declare the income for March.......

Thanks.

somethingcorporate

Make a note of what you do so you can be consistent each year.

Fortunately some of the folk at HMRC do possess commonsense so as long as you do not take the mick you should be fine.

There is a note section on your return so you can state what assumptions you used in there so can fall back on that statement if you ever do get challenged (which is very unlikely).

John_Pierpoint

I have a similar problem in that a rental payment is payable in some way related to the day of the week. The organization is a former nationalised utility and obviously a law unto itself. Technically I think the payment is due on 31st March/1st April so that is the year in which I report it. Even if it does not arrive by post until mid April.

The last thing I want is HMRC querying why the rent yo yo's year on year.