Trading Allowance - income from property

Rural_Puppy

Hello everyone. Trying hard to get the SA right before the deadline!
Question is re the £1000 p/a trading allowance relative to a private property rental. Property income has been properly declared on all previous tax returns for several years.
My tenant moved out on 31st May 2019, so only paid 2 months rent at £600 per month during the 2019/20 tax year.  After the tenant moved out, I repaid them the deposit of £540. I then sold the property without letting it again during the tax year. It was the only rental property I had during the tax year. 
Is the total income for the year therefore £1200 minus £540 and so falls under the £1000 trading allowance and does not have to be declared at all on the SA? Will HMRC likely query this as they will have info regarding the previous rental income and expenses?

Alternatively, I could enter all the figures for income and expenses. Can you clarify my understanding that mortgage costs are no longer allowed?
I also assume that the letting business ended when the tenant moved out, and that I can only claim expenses up to that date. Is that correct?
There will be a CGT liability for the sale, which I think I have managed to calculate correctly using the HMRC calculator. I intend to declare that on the SA. Again, is that likely to trigger a query from HMRC about any letting income during the year?
Many thanks for any assistance, much appreciated.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

You cannot claim the trading allowance against rental income.

Have a read up on the property allowance.

Jeremy535897

That's a lot of questions. As well as reading up on the property allowance:

• you only deduct the £540 deposit refunded if you declared it as income when you received it
• if you choose to use it, the property allowance of £1,000 is deducted from gross rental income, so leaving £200 in your case to declare, assuming the security deposit cannot be treated as a reduction in rent (see above)
• you can deduct 20% of residential property finance costs (mortgage interest in your case) from your basic rate tax liability, if you are not claiming the property allowance
• expenses after the last tenant left cannot normally be claimed. It might be possible to argue that expenses to put the property back into a condition to let or sell should be allowed, but the first issue is why wasn't the security deposit used, and the second is that as there is no ongoing letting business of any property, there is arguably nothing appropriate to set it against (but some post cessation expenses can be claimed). See: https://community.hmrc.gov.uk/forums/customerforums/ifp/d948f915-c3f0-e911-a812-000d3a7ed2f2