Self assessment for rental income

sclare

This is my first year of being an (unwilling) landlord, and will soon need to fill out the self assessment form. Until now I have been PAYE with my pensions and savings interest my only income. How onerous is the online form, and will I need to work out all the total amounts of income to fill it in, or will they already have those, so I'll only need the rental income and expenditure to hand?

theartfullodger

Buy a book on property tax: e,g, 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Save-Property-Tax-2024/dp/1911020994
- it will v likely save you time & money compared to the alternative (ignorance)

"Unwilling" landlord?? You didn't sign anything then r decline to accept a gift/inheritance?? 

There are more than 12 taxes a landlord may pay so don't just worry about income tax (brought in to pay to fight the french, only paid "voluntarily" by Charlie & Billy.... unlike we the people. In particular CGT (file tose documents for wen you sell, maybe in 30 years time)

Suggest you engage an accountant - the risk of hmrc being upset if you mis-report is not a nice one.  (Years and years ago I had two sheriffs (in scotland at the time) knocking on my door when I had not reported for 5 years - I wrote a cheque to them and then sorted the reporting. )

How onerous?? Depends on your circumstances - if just PAYE & rental then not so bad, but if you've got savings, shares, pensions, foreign income etc etc it  can be a right pain.

Done any training or education in being a landlord??  - it will v likely save you time & money compared to the alternative (ignorance)

Best wishes to all

_Penny_Dreadful

sclare said:

This is my first year of being an (unwilling) landlord, and will soon need to fill out the self assessment form. Until now I have been PAYE with my pensions and savings interest my only income. How onerous is the online form, and will I need to work out all the total amounts of income to fill it in, or will they already have those, so I'll only need the rental income and expenditure to hand?

It's not that onerous.  The most time consuming thing will be applying for your UTR and registering for your Government Gateway account.

Bookworm225

lots of websites list the basics facts you need to read (or buy a book), pointless us writing them out here when you read for yourself 

Renting out your property: Paying tax and National Insurance - GOV.UK

Work out your rental income when you let property - GOV.UK

Landlord's Guide to Tax on Rental Income- Plaza Estates

A Complete Guide to Tax on Rental Income UK

Reporting property income to HMRC | Low Incomes Tax Reform Group

other sites are available....

Hetty17

For personal income, my experience is that the P60 information is pre-filled in the Tax Return; but, oddly, you have to calculate the State Pension yourself. 

For the Landlord/Property income & expenditure, I would suggest smartpropertymanager.com, free if you have only a small number of properties.   You record all relevant data, and it creates a report that you can transcribe directly into the right sections of your Tax Return.  You can instead just invent your own spreadsheet, of course, but I find the categorisation of the different sorts of expenditure very helpful. 

Bookworm225

Hetty17 said:

 but I find the categorisation of the different sorts of expenditure very helpful. 

or if you actually understood the instructions on the tax return you would not categorise at all if your total costs are below the (rather high) threshold and just enter a single total costs figure as you are allowed to do so 

sclare

Thanks everyone.

And yes, @theartfullodger I'm in a position of having to manage this property until I can sell it to meet my late parent's debts. So genuinely unwilling. 

sclare

"For personal income, my experience is that the P60 information is pre-filled in the Tax Return; but, oddly, you have to calculate the State Pension yourself."

@Hetty17 that was my experience when I had to fill in my late mum's final tax return after her death, which is why I wondered. Seems like it will work the same way for me, then. Thank you.

theartfullodger

sclare said:

Thanks everyone.

And yes, @theartfullodger I'm in a position of having to manage this property until I can sell it to meet my late parent's debts. So genuinely unwilling. 

So property is owned by parent's estate not you?

Or have you inherited, probate sorted and land registry updated? In which case who's debts?

Apologies, mildly confused .

sheramber

Can you  clarify who owns the house?

Does it still  in your parent's name or  is it in your name?


If the house is  still in your parent's name it is their estate that receives  the  rental income and any tax due  is payable by the estate.  An estate return will need to be completed, depending on the amount of income received.

You are not responsible for your parent's debt, it is payable by  their estate.

Grumpy_chap

It sounds like the OP is managing the property as a rental and the property remains in the parent's Estate.  Any income and tax will be tax on the Estate, not the OP.
The OP might be best to serve notice to bring the tenancy to a conclusion as swiftly as possible and then sell the property.
For the accounts, it might be worth the OP engaging the services of an Accountant - the costs will be met from the Estate funds (not the OP) and should not be that great an expense.