Personal bills

Forever_Forest

Hi all,

I've tried to find confirmation of this through my own research but to no avail.

A friend tells me that a percentage (I think he said around 20%) of what I pay on my home residence bills (council tax, heating etc) can be offset against my second property rental income.

Anyone know if this is true?

Thanks in advance

antrobus

Forever_Forest wrote: »

Hi all,

I've tried to find confirmation of this through my own research but to no avail.

A friend tells me that a percentage (I think he said around 20%) of what I pay on my home residence bills (council tax, heating etc) can be offset against my second property rental income.

Anyone know if this is true?

Thanks in advance

You failure to find confirmation is explained by the fact that is not true.

Forever_Forest

lol !

Ok, cheers!

agrinnall

As antrobus says, unless your friend is George Osborne and he's giving you a speak preview of the Autumn Statement.

polymaff

I wonder if your friend is actually thinking of home office expenses you can set off against business income? These can include utilities, council tax etc. and there are HMRC guidelines which approximate to:

fraction of home square footage dedicated solely to the business * fraction of time that square footage is actively in use by the business * sum of the applicable bills for the entire home.

You'll be pushing it to achieve 20%, I'd guess. 1 to 2% is more typical.

There is also a flat-rate scheme of the "we won't argue with you if you keep within these figures, mate" type at

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/bim75010.htm

booksurr

polymaff wrote: »

I wonder if your friend is actually thinking of home office expenses you can set off against business income? These can include utilities, council tax etc. and there are HMRC guidelines which approximate to:

fraction of home square footage dedicated solely to the business * fraction of time that square footage is actively in use by the business * sum of the applicable bills for the entire home.

You'll be pushing it to achieve 20%, I'd guess. 1 to 2% is more typical.

There is also a flat-rate scheme of the "we won't argue with you if you keep within these figures, mate" type at

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/bim75010.htm

all very true with reference to self employed and/or employees required to work at home, however, OP is asking in the context of costs for his rental business. The amount of time spent on admin tasks related to a single rental property would be a lot less than 1% and even the no questions asked £4 per week would be open to challenge in that context!

polymaff

booksurr wrote: »

all very true with reference to self employed and/or employees required to work at home, however, OP is asking in the context of costs for his rental business.

Which the OP may be, or his friend assumes he is, running as a self-employed businessman.