Contradictory question in Self Assessment

JacobEdgar

I am about to finish my tax assessment (I am self employed), but I've found a question which baffles me. I am self employed and the past year I received rental income from abroad.

This is the question;

I've already entered my foreign income section listing my rental income. But this is asking me if I have income from UK land (which I don't have) or property (looks like UK property I suppose?) which I don't have either, but then it lists in brackets (including from foreign property) which kinds of defeats sentence, because if it is from UK and foreign property, then they might as just say "all property".

At first I thought I'd put "No", but re-checking I thought it maybe "Yes", but then a new section for entering details about my UK property appears, which I don't have. So I am at a loss. Somebody has been in the same situation, or knows what they mean? I don't know why they are so cryptic, in something it should be very, very clear.

DRS1

I don't know if this is an answer but the UK Property pages include a box for Furnished Holiday Lettings in the UK or EEA. That may explain the inclusion of foreign property in the UK Property question (although in the 24/5 printed version there is no mention of it upfront. It just says "If you received income from UK property (including rents and other income from land you own or lease out), read the notes to decide if you need to fill in the ‘UK property’ pages. You may not need to if this income is up to £1,000.")

sheramber

If your income from property (total of UK and Foreign0 is kess than £1000 youmay not need tomcomplete land and property pages as the income is covered by the trading allowance of £1000.

Self assessment return notes pages TRG 3 & 4

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a9ea8a5df4246cf45e469e0/SA150_Notes_2026.pdf

Property Income Allowance
If your total property income (excluding income
eligible for Rent-a-Room relief) is not more than
£1,000 it is exempt from tax and does not need to
be reported on a tax return unless the income is
from a connected party.

income from land and property abroad over
£1,000 – if your total income from UK and
foreign property was £1,000 or less, this may
be exempted by the Property Income Allowance,
see ‘4 UK property’ or go to
www.gov.uk/guidance/tax-free-allowanceson-property-and-trading-income for
more information

…………………

You should also fill in the ‘Foreign’ pages if you’re
eligible to claim Foreign Tax Credit Relief or
Special Withholding Tax on income you report
on other pages.

sherlock228

The question is a flag for whether you have a tax liability in the first place, if you don't, the UK and/or foreign source of income is effectively irrelevant. If you have a liability, then answer yes.

if your rental income from any location totals more than 1,000 then you will have a tax liability and can either claim the 1,000 property allowance when declaring your rental profit or your actual profit based on deducting actual expenses (the latter of course only worthwhile if expenses >1k)

if rental income from any location totals <1k then there will never be a tax liability as your taxable net profit would be zero.

if your rental income derives from overseas then you could choose to complete the foreign section if you have to account (claim) for any tax deducted abroad. But foreign tax is only ever a credit against a UK liability, so zero UK liability leads to zero foreign tax credit.

sgthammer

Does the Help section offer any guidance?

At a glance, foreign property seems to broadly come under the first question, so you might only have to fill in the extra pages if there are complications to reconcile such as double taxation.

(Not a property magnate, but I worried about similar issues when I was freelancing and it turned out I was in the clear as nothing was taxed at source.)

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6683896/contradictory-question-in-self-assessment

You are aware that the question regarding £1000 income is your gross income before any expenses are deducted, aren’t you?

A previous post stated you get £15k approx from your foreign rental.

DRS1

I suspect the OP ticked No to the first question because he has no UK property rented out rather than because his total rent from all property worldwide is under £1k.

Maybe they have tried to get a single question to do two jobs and have made a horlicks of it.

JacobEdgar

Yes, my rental income is more than 1000 GBP ( as it might be easy to deduce), but the problem is not this, is if the question refers only to UK property or also includes property abroad.

Reading it again, it does seem like I have to say "Yes" and "Yes" to both questions. And I suppose than when I am prompted questions about UK property, I have to say "None" or "delete", as I have already filled in the foreign rental income part.

What do you think?

DRS1

Presumably you wouldn't be filling in the furnished holiday lettings in the EEA bit?

I don't know what happens if you delete a part of the form - does it leave the upfront question as you ticked it or change the answer to No? And if it stays the same will it mark your return as incomplete because you haven't filled in a required page. If it does that you may not be able to submit the return.

JacobEdgar

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82145081#Comment_82145081

Hi, no, I entered as rental income from abroad, it isn't furnished holiday lettings. I've re-read the help, and it does indeed order you to say Yes to first question. Then, when I've to click the button "Delete the UK property section" because it didn't really apply, it changed the answer on the first question to "No" automatically, so I can't do that.

Now I have checked and it seems all the answers in the UK property section are "(optional)", so I can leave them at blaink or introduce just a zero in everything, as it looks here;

Which I guess is what I should do, since I've clearly stated in the Foreign section I rent one property and introduced all the amounts and expenditures regarding it.

Although it still looks a bit odd to have to go through 5 pages and say zero or nothing to them. I can't see any other solution. Any thought about it or anybody has gone through this?

DRS1

If you save those answers and then go back to the page showing all the sections of the tax return that you are meant to complete does it show up any issues with the UK Property section? If it shows as OK then I would go with that. I confess it is not an issue I have had to address myself.