HMRC Property Expenses

ceh209

In my experience, you won't be able to claim the cost of food. HMRC (quite rightly, I think) say you would have had to eat whether you were travelling somewhere for business or not.

Andrea75

Thanks florence, understood. You've all been a great help. All the legal stuff is sorted and in place it was just the mortgage interest and misc expenses I was really unsure about. I would never have even considered renting my house without alm the legalities in place its just not right or fair to all parties concerned. Thanks again

Andrea75

Googler...thank you the links are very helpful :-)

*JS*

Hi
I wondered if someone could provide a bit of guidance.
I'm completing my first ever tax return, basically the situation is my wifes father passed away in late 2011. We inherited the property and paid off the mortgage with his pension payout.
We decided to rent the property out, however it was a complete mess and it cost us £6,000 to get it in a fit state.
This included a new boiler (old one was knackered), a complete new kitchen and bathroom (existing ones had been in 30yrs and were old and decrepid), new carpets in 4 rooms and lots of little repairs etc.
The tenant moved in during April 12.

My query is on what expenses I can and cannot claim for, and also what evidence I need to provide. I've been through the HMRC guides and I'm even more confused than previously.
I'm tempted to take the 10% wear and tear allowance but given the money we spent doing the property up I'm loathe to miss out if there's a chunk of that cost I can claim against.

Also assuming I do claim for renewals how do a document this? Do I just send the SA105 form to HMRC with my figures on or do I need to show how I arrived at these figures in a separate document and provide evidence?

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat

*JS* wrote: »

Hi
I wondered if someone could provide a bit of guidance.
I'm completing my first ever tax return, basically the situation is my wifes father passed away in late 2011. We inherited the property and paid off the mortgage with his pension payout.
We decided to rent the property out, however it was a complete mess and it cost us £6,000 to get it in a fit state.
This included a new boiler (old one was knackered), a complete new kitchen and bathroom (existing ones had been in 30yrs and were old and decrepid), new carpets in 4 rooms and lots of little repairs etc.
The tenant moved in during April 12.

My query is on what expenses I can and cannot claim for, and also what evidence I need to provide. I've been through the HMRC guides and I'm even more confused than previously.
I'm tempted to take the 10% wear and tear allowance but given the money we spent doing the property up I'm loathe to miss out if there's a chunk of that cost I can claim against.

Also assuming I do claim for renewals how do a document this? Do I just send the SA105 form to HMRC with my figures on or do I need to show how I arrived at these figures in a separate document and provide evidence?

The 10% wear and tear is for furnishings.

You can claim much of this against this or future years tax liabilitiies. Fill it in on the right page of the tax return, and keep the evidence. You may be asked to produce it, but you may not. You will have to eb able to demonstrate (again if asked) that they did not consitute material improvements to the property, or that they were brinigng it up to current safety standards. So fitting a new kitchen where it is unservicable is probably allowable (but not a luxury one to a budget house), whereas fitting a conservatory is almost certainly disallowed

Per the previous poster - recommend an accountant if it's your first time out - I am sure they'll save you more than their fee, and you'll be sure you've done it right

Whilst there