Rental Tax Question

Robster88

Hello. I bought a rental property in Dec 2019, which was let out in June 2020. 

I am in the process of filling out my tax return for the 2020/2021 tax year. I did not fill out a tax return for 2019/2020 as I did not receive any income from the property that year. 

I believe that interior painting is an allowable expense, as are repairing electrical faults. 

I did both of these, however I paid for these in the previous tax year. As I did not have any income, I would have had a loss, as my allowable expenses were greater than my income. As I did not need to fill in a tax return, this loss is not registered anywhere, and so I was wondering whether or not it can count as something I can offset against the next years income, or would I have needed to tell HMRC in the previous tax year? 

Cheers 

Grumpy_chap

Expenses incurred in preparing the property for first rental are often considered as capital and not able to be set against income.  The rules in this regard can be less than straightforward so you may wish to take the professional advice of an Accountant.

[Deleted User]

Grumpy_chap said:

Expenses incurred in preparing the property for first rental are often considered as capital and not able to be set against income.  The rules in this regard can be less than straightforward so you may wish to take the professional advice of an Accountant.

As with most things - it depends. When did the rental ‘business’ commence?

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/property-income-manual/pim2505