Tax Treatment of Property Income Changing, Is there a mimimal income disregard. gingh

John_Pierpoint

This year there has been a lot of interest and publicity about the first £1k of interest being disregarded for tax.
[What interest ? I hear you say]
However there are also changes in the tax accounting for rental income - basically the government wants to speed up the tax, to match the taxing of a business.

I get the income from the rent of an agricultural field - in theory it gets paid 4 times a year on the "quarter days".
The grand annual total is a couple of hundred pounds, shared with my wife - not thousands !

Obviously paying tax 4 times a year will not be cost effective for me or HMRC to chase up.

I currently pay on an accrual basis p ie paying the tax as at the dates the rent should have been received rather than the dates the cash is actually received. I believe I should have changed to the cash basis about 25 years ago but nobody told me!

Last fiscal year's "Lady Day" (25 March) payment seems to "have gone missing",

Somewhere I am sure I have been told that if the total property income is less than £1,000 (or is it £100) it will be disregarded. [However google does not seem able to confirm this idea]

Can someone put me right and give me a link to follow?

Can I get away with putting 75% of normal on my self assessment without getting into a fight and a fine with HMRC?

John_Pierpoint

Ah - I have found the source.

It is the FT. 17mar16

"George Osborne said he would introduce two new tax allowances for trading and property income each worth £1,000 designed to help the new world of micro-entrepreneurs"

Personally I think he realises that HMRC will collapse under the weight of micro traders on Ebay and Airbnb providing accounts. It seems that the turnover can be above £1,000 but there is an assumed expenses of up to £1,000 a year without the need to provide proof.

It seems that this new allowance is inspired by the growth of the sharing economy possibly growing from £500 million to £9bn by 2025.

Now what is the definition of a micro entrepreneur.?.

John_Pierpoint

It does not start until April 2017 but to all you MSE "entrepreneurs" here comes your chance to get going and leave worrying about the accountant until you see how the idea appeals to the punters.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/21/sharing-economy-1000-tax-free-allowances-ebay-airbnb-micro-entrepreneurs