Can landlord claim WTC?

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chipolatta
chipolatta Posts: 46 Forumite
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in Benefits & tax credits
Hi all,
Top and bottom of it is I lost my job a couple of years ago, struggling to find work, but have been renting out Mrs Chipolatta's flat, so have about £5k a year coming in from that.
Been doing odd jobs cash in hand for folk locally, nothing stable or well paid, not been claiming benefits or tax credits, but push has come to shove, and I've put my pride aside and decided that we really do need extra money coming in.
As a pro landlord (I guess), can we claim WTC? I punched the numbers into the online Tax Credit Calculator, and if I click the 'self employed' button and say I'm doing 25 hours a week, then the computer says 'yes'... So can a landlord claim WTC?
Cheers,
Chipper
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  • Darksparkle
    Darksparkle Posts: 5,465 Forumite
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    Generally a landlord isn’t considered self employed. Property letting is generally an investment rather than a business.

    May help to read here - https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/national-insurance-manual/nim23800

    I assume your wife is declaring her rental income to HMRC?
  • chipolatta
    chipolatta Posts: 46 Forumite
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    Darksparkle wrote: »
    Generally a landlord isn’t considered self employed. Property letting is generally an investment rather than a business.

    May help to read here - link

    I assume your wife is declaring her rental income to HMRC?

    Thanks for the link Darksparkle, its very clear and interesting in the link. The question about claiming WTC arose when filing tax return and declaring the rent. It got me thinking that being that there's potentially tax due on the rents then couldnt it work the other way round too?
  • Darksparkle
    Darksparkle Posts: 5,465 Forumite
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    Well no because not all income that is taxable is employment or self employment eg you pay tax on bank interest, you wouldn’t claim WTC for that.
  • Darksparkle
    Darksparkle Posts: 5,465 Forumite
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    Also there would be very little “work” to do with property to justify meeting the hours criteria of 16/24/30 (depending on circumstances).
  • xylophone
    xylophone Posts: 44,422 Forumite
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    And see post 16

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=73684632#post73684632
  • Pennywise
    Pennywise Posts: 13,468 Forumite
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    chipolatta wrote: »
    Hi all,
    Top and bottom of it is I lost my job a couple of years ago, struggling to find work, but have been renting out Mrs Chipolatta's flat, so have about £5k a year coming in from that.
    Been doing odd jobs cash in hand for folk locally, nothing stable or well paid, not been claiming benefits or tax credits, but push has come to shove, and I've put my pride aside and decided that we really do need extra money coming in.
    As a pro landlord (I guess), can we claim WTC? I punched the numbers into the online Tax Credit Calculator, and if I click the 'self employed' button and say I'm doing 25 hours a week, then the computer says 'yes'... So can a landlord claim WTC?
    Cheers,
    Chipper

    How can you possibly spend 25 hours per week on renting out a single property?

    But as others have said, property letting isn't self employment, it's investment income, declared on the property pages of the SA tax return.
  • Cheeky_Monkey
    Cheeky_Monkey Posts: 2,072 Forumite
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    Can't you just sell the flat? When the tenant leaves I mean.
  • chipolatta
    chipolatta Posts: 46 Forumite
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    Thanks for the input everyone. Yes, the weekly hours would be quite a streach for just looking after the one flat, guess that wouldnt fly really. Maybe a landlord with a few properties running them as a full time bussiness while looking to expad can justify the hours though.
    Not sure about selling the flat, up here in the North they are cheap as chips so selling up will only gain some cash that won't last a long time, but renting it gives at least a small amount of steady income over the years.
  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 15,286 Forumite
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    An additional point is that WTC is being replaced by Universal Credit. Under UC the value of the property would be considered as 'savings' and so you would fail the means test.
  • chipolatta
    chipolatta Posts: 46 Forumite
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    Voyager2002 wrote: »
    An additional point is that WTC is being replaced by Universal Credit. Under UC the value of the property would be considered as 'savings' and so you would fail the means test.

    Oh. I dont have a clue about UC, will have to read it up...
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