FHL - VOA & pension

mr_tash

My flat has been available for short term lets via an agency since May this year. The HMRC website says for a new FHL to apply the tests to the first 12 months, but I've recently met the criteria.

I’ve read in another thread that I can contact the VOA now, however I’m going travelling for 3 months from March so they won’t be able to contact me. As per the HMRC 12 months test, I assume it will be fine to contact the VOA & council when I return in June, and continue paying council tax for now?

I want to contribute to a personal pension with the let income to reduce my combined employment and let incomes for this tax year. Will it be OK to wait for the 12 month test period to pass before making the contributions? Or do contributions need to be made before the end of the current tax year? And finally is there a limit on how much I can contribute - I have a workplace pension with my employer if that makes any difference.

I will be speaking with an accountant in the new year, but some answers to the question above will stop some constant overthinking during Christmas!

Thanks.

anselld

The VOA has nothing to do with the tax and pension position.  You must make the contribution prior to the end of the tax year with sufficient time for the scheme recognise it before the deadline.  You can do this whether or not you contact VOA.
VOA merely allows you to move onto Business Rates, which may in turn improve your profit by claiming small business relief.  So the sooner you do it the better.  VOA are also very slow so just submit the form 6048 before you go and see what happens.

mr_tash

anselld said:

You must make the contribution prior to the end of the tax year with sufficient time for the scheme recognise it before the deadline.

Thank you. What do you mean by 'for the scheme to recognise it'?

Do I need to do anymore than make the contribution? For example, inform the pension company where the money is from? I'm guessing it will need to be declared on a SA form.

anselld

mr_tash said:

anselld said:

You must make the contribution prior to the end of the tax year with sufficient time for the scheme recognise it before the deadline.

Thank you. What do you mean by 'for the scheme to recognise it'?

Do I need to do anymore than make the contribution? For example, inform the pension company where the money is from? I'm guessing it will need to be declared on a SA form.

I mean that the money has to be with the pensions scheme and cleared into their account and depending on the scheme that may need to be a few working days before the tax year end for their admin to take effect.  You need to ask your pension company what their cut-off date is.   Depending on the scheme they may have paperwork to accompany the contribution but it wont include the SA form because you can't complete SA until after the tax year end.

LHW99

Is this a holiday let? My understanding is that these are the only ones where the income is regarded as "relevant income" for pension purposes. If you ask on the pensions board, there are people who can likely confirm.