Buy to Let Self Assessment Tax question

mahdlo

Have had a BTL for several years which was in my wifes name only.

For this years self assessment we have income from a second BTL that is in joint names.

How do we go about submitting our self assessment this year?
Can you do so in joint names? Do we halve the income/costs?

I have never self assessed before (PAYE only) whereas my wife has for several years.

Any help greatly appreciated!

fengirl_2

You cannot jointly self assess - women campaigned for years for independent taxation!
You simply need to declare your half of the income and expenditure on the jointly owned property on your own self assessment and your wife declares her half share, plus the full income and expenditure on her sole owned property.

HugoSP

Essentially what you say is correct.

For the property that is in your wife's name only she takes all the profit/loss

For the property that is in joint names then you share the profit/loss

Hence if the 2nd property makes a loss, she can only offset half of that against her profit, the other half falls onto you.

As far as the self assessment is concerned I assume your wife will know what she's doing, so she may be a good person to ask!

The best way forward is to do simple profit and loss accounts for each property to work out the profit you've made, then deduct any tax losses that you are entitled to (10% allowance for ware and tear for example) then note that figure down.

If you've made a loss on the 2nd property then make a note of that on your accounts - you can carry that forward to next year but only with regards to profit made on property.

For the 2nd property you halve the final figure and put that down on your self assessment form. You add/subtract the other half to your wifes profit/loss then put the answer on her form.

mahdlo

thanks for the replies.

do I HAVE to submit a self assessment? could we declare all profit/loss on my wifes self assessment only??(I've never been asked to self assess so it would be nice to avoid having to!)

silvercar

mahdlo wrote: »

thanks for the replies.

do I HAVE to submit a self assessment? could we declare all profit/loss on my wifes self assessment only??(I've never been asked to self assess so it would be nice to avoid having to!)

We had to self assess on our BTL for the first time this year. Did it last week, it was very easy doing it online -took all of 5 minutes. As others have said you look at the income and expenditure for that property and halve all the figures.

You can't include it on your wifes SA.

The only thing to remember is that it can take a week to get your online SA password through from the Revenue, so allow plenty of time.

HugoSP

My accountant did tell me a couple of years ago that income below a certain figure could be communicated to the tax office so that it can be taken care of via your tax code.

Once you have the correct figure, it may be worth phoning the tax office and ask the question.