newbie about tax return

tostaky

My partner and I (not married) own two properties (in both names) that we rent out.
I am unemployed but he is.
Do we need to split the income of the property in half and each do a tax return?
or can I do it only on my name?


Many thanks

xylophone

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/pimmanual/pim1030.htm

HMRC guidance.

tostaky

That looked too good to be true - I called HMRC and they said the income must be divided between us.


I find HMRC guidance really hard to understand...

agrinnall

It seems pretty clear to me that if there is no partnership and you are not married/civil partners then you can agree a split other than 50:50 and be taxed accordingly. I suspect the person at HMRC you spoke to probably didn't fully understand the rules and just wanted to get you off the phone.

booksurr

tostaky wrote: »

That looked too good to be true - I called HMRC and they said the income must be divided between us.

I find HMRC guidance really hard to understand...

an accountant would have argued differently because they would know that call centre staff have a wide but very low level knowledge and just read from scripts without knowing the real exceptions and cases. xylophone's link has the key concept of unequal split - the rest of how they would argue it is explained here: http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/joint-property-rental-income-not-husband-and-wife-tax-enquiry/506297

obviously your situation may not be so clear cut and for the sums involved it probably a lot easier to just pay the tax

tostaky

thanks all - I did a little google research and yes if I fill in Form 17, then we can change the split!
thank you.