Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Budget Hits Holiday Let Owners | Here's What Changed
Transcript
- 0:00We've just finished the case for somebody who's, believe it or
- 0:02not, use a big accounting firm. We've got 15 holiday let's,
- 0:05we've worth millions of pounds and haven't paid their cup
- 0:08allowances. And let's just say we've saved
- 0:10them a hell of a lot of money. Get in touch with a team at Zeal
- 0:13to check that you haven't got any unclaimed cap allowances.
- 0:16What are the key takeaways from the UK budget?
- 0:20Will your business rates be going down?
- 0:22And why do holiday let owners need to claim their capital
- 0:26allowances right now? Matt Jeffrey from Zeal Tax is
- 0:30the special guest on the House Planet podcast, and he'll be
- 0:33answering all these questions and more on today's show.
- 0:41Matt, thank you for joining us on the Host Planet podcast.
- 0:44What are the key takeaways from the recent UK budget which are
- 0:48relevant for short term rental owners?
- 0:52Oh, James, thanks for inviting us you along again for, you
- 0:56know, the podcast. I know the tax ones tend to go
- 0:59down well and not everybody likes to pay it, but if we can
- 1:03find some ways to reduce it then, then that's great.
- 1:07Yes, we had a budget. Was it last week?
- 1:09Now that time flies by, but I think it was was a net where
- 1:12Rachel Reeves announced some tax changes.
- 1:16Nothing really major, however you know there was a change in
- 1:22income tax rates for property income which holiday let's will
- 1:27be classed as property income from April 2025 as we know.
- 1:30So what that means is that they're going to add an extra 2%
- 1:35on the income tax rates that will charge to individuals that
- 1:39own and run their property business in their personal name.
- 1:42So whilst 2% doesn't sound like a great deal, actually it's a
- 1:4710% rise. So if you're a 20% taxpayer,
- 1:50you'll now pay 22%. If you're a 40% taxpayer, you'll
- 1:54pay 42%. Now one of the questions we've
- 1:57been asked quite a bit since this has come out is do you pay
- 2:002% if you're in the nought percent category?
- 2:03Well, the answer to that is no. So if you are, if your profits
- 2:08are below 12,500, including any other taxable income that you
- 2:12have, then you will still pay 0 tax.
- 2:15So it will impact those who are paying tax at 20 percent, 40% or
- 2:20even 45% taxpayers will go up to 47%.
- 2:24So that was probably the key change that will impact holiday
- 2:29let owners or directly impact them.
- 2:31I suppose it's worth mentioning the corporation tax rates didn't
- 2:35go up. So if you own, you'll probably
- 2:37run your business through a little, you know, sorry, your
- 2:41company owns the property and you run the business with a
- 2:44limited company, then that will have no impact on your, the tax
- 2:47you pay on your profits. However, dividend tax rates have
- 2:52increased, so they've gone up by 2% as well.
- 2:56And that's 2% on the basic rate and 2% on the higher rate.
- 3:01But the additional rate has stayed the same.
- 3:03Now correct me if I'm wrong, but basic rate is 8.75% and it's
- 3:09gone up to 10.75%. And the higher rate is, is 2%
- 3:12more than what it was previously.
- 3:14That means so for those people who you know, maybe not
- 3:17understand what dividends are dividends are so you pay
- 3:21corporation tax on your profits and then the profits that you've
- 3:25got in the company, if you want to take them out into your
- 3:27personal bank account, then you have to pay dividend taxes to to
- 3:30take them out. So it would be fair to say that
- 3:34you know, companies or owners of companies will be impacted.
- 3:39However, there's obviously different strategies of
- 3:43extracting money from a limited company.
- 3:45So maybe paying a dividend or re looking at your remuneration
- 3:49strategy or you take less out of your company might be a work
- 3:52around there. So, you know, on a positive
- 3:55corporation tax rates haven't gone up, but obviously income
- 3:57tax rates going up is an ideal. The other thing which has caused
- 4:02quite a lot of stir is the fact that personal allowances aren't
- 4:07going to be rising anymore until 2031.
- 4:12So it's been sort of re referred to as a stealth tax because, you
- 4:18know, in their manifesto the government said that they won't
- 4:20be putting up any income tax rates.
- 4:22Well, they did with the property and dividends, but your trading
- 4:27income or your employment income that they're not affected.
- 4:31But by not increasing the purse allowance and actually
- 4:34increasing minimum wage and increasing state pension.
- 4:39What that means is that people who didn't pay tax previously
- 4:42will now start paying some tax, 20% and those who were in the
- 4:46paying 20% might get pushed up into the 40% tax bracket.
- 4:50So it's a way of increasing income tax without actually
- 4:53increasing tax rates. So you could say that that
- 4:55they're clever in one way or you could look at it from a
- 4:58different angle and say that they're backtracking on, on what
- 5:01what they said they're going to do.
- 5:02So they're the sort of they, they were sort of the main key
- 5:07tax changes affecting short term net owners.
- 5:10Now we weren't hoping for too many changes.
- 5:12We didn't get the VAT changes to VAT thresholds, which I know a
- 5:15lot of people were a little bit nervous about that.
- 5:17So, so I think if we if we take a positive spin on this, you
- 5:22know, flat factuals are staying the same.
- 5:25There is a little bit of extra income tax to pay, but you know,
- 5:30it could could have been worse. I think, you know, I think a lot
- 5:32of people come away thinking wasn't too bad.
- 5:35So there are other sort of non tax benefits as well.
- 5:42Do you want to cover them now as well?
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- 7:00sorted with postfully. We'll just go over a couple of
- 7:03things. I mean, the in relation to the
- 7:05dividends like you mentioned there, you were right in saying
- 7:07it's gone from 8.75% for basic rate taxpayers up to 10.75.
- 7:13The higher rate is 33.75% to 35.75%.
- 7:18So if you are having a limited company and paying yourself
- 7:22through dividends, that will have an impact.
- 7:23And I think just one thing to mention, as you kind of alluded
- 7:26to, it's a 2 percentage point rise, which which doesn't sound
- 7:30like a lot, but actually is more.
- 7:33I wonder if you have kind of an example of where you can share
- 7:36kind of like how much it has it has actually gone up for some
- 7:39people. Yeah, exactly.
- 7:40Well if we keep the numbers simple because none of us like
- 7:42to amass even even U.S. tax advice and accountants, we've
- 7:45got computers to do it for us now.
- 7:46But let's say your profits were £10,000.
- 7:50Under the old rules you would have paid 2000 lbs tax.
- 7:53Under the new rules you'll pay 2200.
- 7:55So that in mathematical terms is a 10% increase.
- 7:59So an extra £200 on 2000 is £200 is £200 extra.
- 8:04It's worth pointing out, I haven't didn't mention it, that
- 8:06those these rules don't actually come into play until January
- 8:102027. For income tax, the dividends
- 8:13will apply from from 2026, but income tax rates, the first time
- 8:17you'll notice the extra tax you'll pay will be in January
- 8:212029, believe it or not, because it's tax year 2728.
- 8:26So that finishes in April 2028 and then you'll have until
- 8:28January 2029 to pay your tax. So, you know, there's this,
- 8:32there's a couple of years ago, who knows what might what
- 8:35happened in between them as well.
- 8:37So, yeah, it's not something that's going to have an
- 8:39immediate impact on the holiday owners, but in time, you know,
- 8:43it will be, you know, another added cost to to contend with.
- 8:48Yeah, and you're right in what you're saying there about the,
- 8:50the personal allowances as well. I mean, this, this is a massive
- 8:53stealth tax. And the, the main point with the
- 8:55personal allowances is if they would have gone up at the rate
- 8:58of inflation, that 12,500 lbs would be a lot higher.
- 9:04The 20% rate would be a lot higher, which is currently at
- 9:06about just over 50,000 lbs, I think.
- 9:09And you know, the kind of middle earners keep getting dragged in
- 9:13to this 40% tax rate. And, and, and this is the issue
- 9:16and, and if you, if you do have a job and property income as
- 9:19well, it's likely that you are going to get dragged into this
- 9:2240% rate, right? Yeah, I, I, I, I was just
- 9:26looking at the statistics, but it was on average the, the
- 9:32minimum wage has gone up by 7% over the last five years and
- 9:37obviously state pensions will now increase above the the
- 9:42threshold. Interestingly, the the
- 9:44chancellor said that they weren't going to go after
- 9:47pensioners for the additional tax.
- 9:48Now to me, that's going to cause a bit of, you know, a few issues
- 9:53because if you're not going to go after pensioners while you're
- 9:55coming after me. So with a little of the Rex
- 9:57attacks. So again, you know, maybe some
- 9:59of them haven't quite funny thought through, but yeah.
- 10:04Yeah, it all goes back to this debate about working people,
- 10:07doesn't it? Who is a working person?
- 10:10We, we, we, we, we won't get into the politics of it.
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- 11:25available now from our website. Head to Houseplanner dot Club
- 11:30for further details. I think what we should probably
- 11:33focus on a little little bit though is having property in
- 11:36your personal name or a limited company and kind of dig down a
- 11:40little bit there. So if you are somebody out there
- 11:43and you've got property in your personal name, should you be
- 11:47thinking about transferring it into a limited company?
- 11:51Yeah. I, I think, you know, it's a
- 11:53question that we get asked a lot at the time and, and we do carry
- 11:57out a sort of a consultation that we'll sort of go through in
- 12:03everybody's individual circumstances and try and plot
- 12:05out whether or not there is a benefit to incorporate in your,
- 12:09that's the terminology incorporating.
- 12:11So moving your, your property and business from your personal
- 12:14name into a limited company structure.
- 12:16Now, for some, there's some really great advantages of doing
- 12:19that. You know, it can mean that
- 12:21you're going to pay less tax every year because you know,
- 12:24particularly if you've got mortgages and you know you're
- 12:27not companies aren't affected by the restrictions on mortgage
- 12:31interest deductions. You know, if you've got other
- 12:34income elsewhere, then you know, there there's certain categories
- 12:37of of owners that you know, really would benefit from an
- 12:40incorporation. Generally they're, you know,
- 12:42they've got multiple units. They are the earnings or profits
- 12:47including other forms of income are over say 70 thousand 75,000
- 12:52lbs. So there are these, you know,
- 12:55certain owners group that could really benefit from an
- 12:58incorporation. However, you know, there are
- 13:02another and probably a larger proportion to be honest, that
- 13:05wouldn't really see any benefit from a limited company.
- 13:09I'm thinking more there's some people who don't have a
- 13:11mortgage, don't have much other income, you know, these types of
- 13:16things. So it's a case by case basis,
- 13:19but there are some significant benefits and you know, outside
- 13:22of just your normal annual taxes use unlimited company structure
- 13:28can potentially reduce your capital gains tax when you come
- 13:32to sell your properties because the transfer from personal to
- 13:36company ownership will restart that clock for capital for
- 13:39capital gains tax. But also it will give you some
- 13:42flexibility to plan for inheritance tax as well.
- 13:45And what I mean by that is that you can either create additional
- 13:49classes of shares which can be owned by your dependents, your
- 13:53children potentially where the growth and value of your
- 13:57business during your lifetime will then be in your children's
- 14:00estates rather than your estate, so-called a family investment
- 14:04company. So quite a lot of people are
- 14:05looking at going down that route.
- 14:07And the other thing is you can, you can gift some of those top
- 14:10class of shares, the A shares to your dependents during your
- 14:14lifetime. So you can slowly move it out of
- 14:17your estate. So yes, you know, for some, and
- 14:20I think if you're, you know, lots of the if you're coming new
- 14:23into this industry, generally probably take you as a limited
- 14:27company is the right thing to do.
- 14:31Again, pros and cons of both, but I think it probably future
- 14:34proofs you a bit more. So, you know, if you're planning
- 14:37on scaling up over time, then you know, and when even if
- 14:40that's not just holiday let's, that might be, you know, buying
- 14:43a commercial property or a binder left or whatever it might
- 14:45be, having that limited company structure will probably future
- 14:49proof you against tax changes, which tend to always be targeted
- 14:52at the individual rather than the company.
- 14:55So my voice is that, you know, if you think you're going to be
- 14:58affected by, you know, all these changes, then, you know, maybe
- 15:02reach out to Zeal and we can give you a free consultation to
- 15:05see whether or not it's worth you exploring an incorporation.
- 15:11And alternatively, you know, those who are coming into the
- 15:14industry probably using a limited company would be
- 15:16sensible, you know, a long term tax planning strategy.
- 15:21Definitely, yeah. Speak to the experts and we'll
- 15:23put all Zeal's contact details in the show notes.
- 15:26One thing to mention in relation to people who want to go from
- 15:29personal name to limited company, what's the stamp duty
- 15:33issue here? Yeah, that's that's something
- 15:36that comes up a lot. And so when you transfer your
- 15:39properties or property for limited company, it's treated as
- 15:43a sale at open market value. So that would naturally trigger
- 15:47capital gains tax and stamp duty.
- 15:50Now if you're structured correctly and you do the
- 15:52transfer in the right way, it is possible to not have to pay
- 15:57stamp duty when you transfer capital gains tax as well.
- 16:01So individuals transferring properties to company will
- 16:04likely be subject to stamp duty charges.
- 16:08If you're a partnership or an LLP transfer into a limited
- 16:11company, then there is no stamp duty if you transfer, if the
- 16:15partners are transferring to a company that they own.
- 16:18Now, if you own your properties in your own name, but maybe
- 16:22you've got some family members who are interested in joining
- 16:24the business or already get involved in the business, then
- 16:27actually forming a a partnership with them.
- 16:30You don't have to legally change the ownership of the property.
- 16:32It still stays in your name until you obviously do the
- 16:35incorporation, but you could form a partnership, you know, if
- 16:39there's a commercial reason to do so.
- 16:41And then that would give you the, you know, the, the tax
- 16:43benefits going forward. So as I said, you know,
- 16:45incorporation is not for everybody, but you know, for
- 16:49those that are either meet the criteria now or can put things
- 16:54in place so that they can in the future, then then you know that
- 16:58it's, it's definitely an option, a restructuring option that they
- 17:01should consider. Definitely, yeah.
- 17:03Speak to the experts, as we said.
- 17:06Was there any positive news from the budget?
- 17:11You could argue that I think the business rates were were
- 17:16highlighted as a as a positive change.
- 17:19So just to go over what happened there, when we had COVID, the
- 17:27hospitality sector were able to get 100% business rates relief.
- 17:33And then in more recent years, that relief has been tapered
- 17:36down and prior to the last budget, those people who were
- 17:41subject to business rates, and we'll come back to that in a
- 17:43second, we're still able to get a 40% reduction in the
- 17:48hospitality sector in comparative other sectors.
- 17:51So you know, your hospitality property would pay 40% less
- 17:54business rates than the office next door.
- 17:56So now in the budget they announced that that they're no
- 18:00longer providing this 40% reduction for the hospitality
- 18:04sector, but to combat that they are reducing the, the values of
- 18:10the multipliers, which would accept how much business space
- 18:12you pay. And they've been reduced sort of
- 18:14in line with with what that 40% was.
- 18:16So that was highlighted as a, as a benefit to owners as well as
- 18:22you know, let's taking that step back to small business rates
- 18:24relief. So there's something called
- 18:27small business rates relief. From what that is, is that if
- 18:29your rateable value of your property in England is less than
- 18:3312,500 and Scotland and in Wales 6000, then you can qualify for
- 18:39small business rates relief, meaning you don't pay any
- 18:41business rates. So the bit I talked about
- 18:44paying, you know, the 40% reduction etcetera, was for
- 18:46people who didn't qualify for small business rates relief.
- 18:49So that might be because you've got multiple properties, you've
- 18:52got, you know, a really big property with multiple units
- 18:55etcetera. But you know, a lot of the
- 18:57owners that that we speak to and are probably listening to this
- 19:00show would, would qualify for small business rates relief.
- 19:04And actually in the budget, what they announced was that if you
- 19:08have had another property that would qualify for business
- 19:12rates, they won't, they won't remove the small business rates
- 19:15relief for a period of two of two further years.
- 19:19So what that means is that often if you've got 1 and you add the
- 19:22second one, they're likely going to pay business rates.
- 19:25But with the new rules that they've announced, there will be
- 19:27a window where you won't have to pay for the 2.
- 19:29So all positive news, but with every positive thing there's
- 19:34always a negative. And what has been highlighted to
- 19:38the government is that whilst they've done these excellent or
- 19:42what appears to be, you know, excellent things by reducing the
- 19:45multiplier and given the sex and small business rates relief.
- 19:48Well at next year there's a new set of of ratings list coming
- 19:53out. So every three years they
- 19:55provide a ratings list and the ratings list is part is the data
- 19:59basically from where they work out your rate of value.
- 20:02Don't ask me how you calculate rate of value.
- 20:04It's a complex formula, but it's based on things like market
- 20:07rents and this, that and the other.
- 20:09But anyway, they will count your rate of value.
- 20:11Then they apply it to a multiplier, but the multiply has
- 20:14been reduced. Now the issue is that we're
- 20:17expecting the new list that comes out in April 2026 to for
- 20:22the the values to be increased by approximately 30% is is
- 20:26what's been published. So that means that actually the
- 20:30benefits that that the government have announced to try
- 20:33and help the sector are going to be outweighed by these new rates
- 20:37that new listing rates is coming out.
- 20:39So past are actually doing a big piece on this.
- 20:43So they're, they're the people who are consulting with the
- 20:49experts and taking it to Parliament to make them aware of
- 20:53what the changes are. So they will be providing some
- 20:57further information on that. So a plug for Paskif you know,
- 21:00if you're not a member, join them, support them, they're
- 21:03working on your behalf and they can give you that all that extra
- 21:06information that you know, that you're not going to get from an
- 21:08accountant, you're maybe not going to get online as well.
- 21:11So, you know, if you're not a member of past, join them.
- 21:14If you are member of past then then they will be, if they
- 21:17haven't already be providing some more information on the
- 21:20business. This is for exchanges.
- 21:22Yeah, I've seen a few posts about this online and I think
- 21:25there's a link where you can go and check exactly what your
- 21:28rateable value is and what you're going to be paying.
- 21:31And quite a few people were posting on social media saying,
- 21:34oh, mine's gone up 20%, mine's gone up 30%.
- 21:37So yeah, people I think are bracing themselves.
- 21:39So yeah, definitely check out Pask.
- 21:41They've got all the the latest information on this and we'll be
- 21:43able to help you if you've got any concerns in that area.
- 21:48OK, then. So another thing we need to
- 21:50mention is that the government has been running campaigns about
- 21:53making tax digital. What do holiday let owners need
- 21:56to know about this? Yeah, probably the hottest topic
- 21:59at the moment, you know, the one that we're getting asked about a
- 22:01lot. So as holiday let owners, you
- 22:06will, you're treated as as as as as as landlords really now.
- 22:12And so if your income from your, from your let's is £50,000 or
- 22:20more in the tax year that we're in now or sorry, actually the
- 22:24tax year, they're going to base it actually on on last year's
- 22:28tax year. But obviously if you know your
- 22:29results by right to the end of April, if your rental income is
- 22:33£50,000 or more than you have to start doing making tax digital
- 22:37from 2027 it will go down to 30,000 turnover and for 2026
- 22:43it's going to be down to 20,000. So what does it mean?
- 22:46Well, actually it's not as complicated or as, as, as it
- 22:51sounds. What the government are trying
- 22:53to achieve is, is they're trying to get people onto a, you know,
- 22:57to, to start keeping the records in a digital format.
- 23:00When I first started in tax 27 years ago, I can remember
- 23:04watching people walking across a car park with banks, carried
- 23:07banks full of invoices. We in the last sort of 10-15
- 23:11years, we've moved on to spreadsheets, which are much
- 23:13easier and quicker to, to process.
- 23:16But you know, I think the next step is to be digitalized.
- 23:19And that means, you know, using some kind of digital software or
- 23:23keeping the records in a format that can be digitally sent to
- 23:28HMRC or whatever it might be. So if you, if you do meet the
- 23:32requirements and I throw that, let's just let's just cover off
- 23:36who, who doesn't have to do it. So if you are a partnership or a
- 23:41limited company, you don't have to do it.
- 23:43If you're, if you want a property jointly, say with your,
- 23:47you know, spouse, civil partner or just a business partner and
- 23:51your, your share of the rental income is less than 50,000.
- 23:55So let's give the example husband and wife, 60,000 lbs of
- 23:58rental income. So that's 30,000 each.
- 24:02You wouldn't have to do making tax digital until 2027.
- 24:07Now all it means is that you either use a QuickBooks 0 free
- 24:12agent, whatever, which whichever one we don't you know, have got
- 24:15any preference to. They're all pretty much the
- 24:17same. Every quarter you need to press
- 24:20a button and then say these are my income and expenses for that
- 24:25quarter period. They will not be audited by HMRC
- 24:29and they will not form part of your final tax return.
- 24:32So at the end of the year, you will still do your tax return as
- 24:34normal. And if the figures are different
- 24:37than what you submitted for whatever reason, you might have
- 24:40to give a refund. There might have been, you know,
- 24:42a cost that that was missed or whatever it might be.
- 24:46It would be only those figures that HMRC will will be looking
- 24:49for. So they might ask for why, you
- 24:50know, and I think that that's what we asked and, and you know,
- 24:53the answer really is that they just want to get people into the
- 24:56habit of using digital softwares.
- 24:59So just, you know, if you're out there thinking I'm too old for
- 25:01this, My, my, I don't even get a Wi-Fi signal where I am.
- 25:07You know, if, if you think that actually, you know, you don't
- 25:10think you'll be able to do this, you can apply for an exemption
- 25:13to HMRC. You know, they've used things
- 25:15like age, Wi-Fi signal, these types of things.
- 25:19So you can apply for exemption just Google making tax digital
- 25:23exemptions, see if you fit into it and you know you can then
- 25:27apply for an exemption. But other than that, you know
- 25:29there is going to there, there is things called bridging
- 25:32software out there. And what that is, is essentially
- 25:35an Excel, an Excel spreadsheet which has got these sort of
- 25:40special macros or whatever they're called built into it.
- 25:43That enables you basically to drag your income for the three
- 25:46months into a into a box for income and your expenses into a
- 25:50box for expenses and that's it. So whilst it's not ideal and
- 25:55it's just another thing that you have to do and potentially
- 25:58another little cost to add, actually, if you can use an
- 26:02accounting software, get into the habit of doing it, it will
- 26:06reduce your accounting costs at the year end because you'll have
- 26:09it all there for you. It will also give you the
- 26:11ability to track your, you know, the performance of your holiday,
- 26:14let on a monthly basis, on a weekly basis, you know, you'll
- 26:17make sure that all your records are in one place.
- 26:20You can take photos of your, of your receipts and it sends it to
- 26:24the software and that's it. You can bin it then, you know,
- 26:26so there's, there's lots of good reasons for doing it and that's
- 26:29why HMRC want people to start doing doing that.
- 26:32So, so yeah, it's, there are, there's, there's plenty of
- 26:37information out there on making tax digital, but I think the
- 26:39message that we're trying to get across is that don't panic.
- 26:42It's not, you know, it's not a particularly difficult task and
- 26:48you've got some time to, to prepare for it.
- 26:49If even if you're, let's say you've got to do it from, from
- 26:53April next year. Well, actually your first filing
- 26:56will be 3 months after. So it will be end of June or
- 26:59whether it is, so you've got a bit of time and, and they have
- 27:02said that they're not going to be charging penalties at the
- 27:05start of the 1st 12 months. So that isn't a reason to not do
- 27:08it, but it is a reason it does give you some comfort.
- 27:11If you get it wrong or you get a bit late to the party, then you
- 27:15know there shouldn't be any financial consequences.
- 27:17But trust me, they won't last long for doing that.
- 27:20And if if they know you're willingly not trying to do it,
- 27:23then I suspect they'll still charge you a penalty.
- 27:24So yeah, I think the message is to try and get on, get on top of
- 27:28it as soon as possible. We will be releasing Zeal A.
- 27:33There is already something in the resource hub which is
- 27:35available to host planet listeners that about making that
- 27:40digital. But we're in the process of
- 27:42we've been trying a few of the different softwares and we're
- 27:45going to just release A blog on that.
- 27:47So give you an idea of in the different ones out there, cost
- 27:50effectiveness, usability, that type of stuff.
- 27:52So that should be out sort of early in the new year.
- 27:55Great. And we'll, we'll put some links
- 27:57to that on House planet channels.
- 27:59I'm just thinking, I'm sure there'll be people out there
- 28:00thinking, will my accountant just deal with this?
- 28:03And I'm probably one of those people.
- 28:06I think ideally it depends, you know, it's, I've spoken to a few
- 28:09accountants and, you know, there's a range of what they're
- 28:12doing summer, taking the opportunity to charge more to,
- 28:15to, to do some more work. Others are encouraging their
- 28:19owners to get onto and helping them to get onto accounting
- 28:22software. Because if I own an accounting
- 28:24practice, I'd want all my clients to be on, on a digital
- 28:27account software. So I'd be, I would be taking
- 28:29this as an opportunity to get people onto accounting software
- 28:32because it makes the accounting's job easier.
- 28:35It can reduce your fees. But yeah, you know, don't rely
- 28:37on your accounting to do it for you.
- 28:39Certainly not, you know, don't even rely on them to make make
- 28:42to to be letting you know that you need to do it.
- 28:45Whilst you might think you're important to to to and you might
- 28:48be important to to your accounting practice.
- 28:50You know, they'll have lots of own lots of people who probably
- 28:53not just holiday owners. And so, you know, they might
- 28:56send out the communications and if you don't read them, they're
- 28:58not going to be, you know, they may or may not be ringing you up
- 29:01and saying don't forget to do this.
- 29:02So take responsibility. As UK taxpayers we have to take
- 29:06our own responsibility for things.
- 29:08That sounds good. OK, then let's finish with
- 29:11capital allowances then there'll be people filling in their tax
- 29:16returns. And also we need to be clear
- 29:19that capital allowances, they are coming to an end.
- 29:22So I think quick overview, what are they?
- 29:25And if you're a holiday let owner and you haven't claimed
- 29:27them, why do you need to be getting in touch with Zeal soon?
- 29:31Yeah, sure. In, in, in real quick times,
- 29:34most owners of holiday let's you would have claimed some cap
- 29:38allowances and you think we've probably claimed our cap
- 29:40allowances. The key message is that there's
- 29:42an extra layer of cap allowances on the purchase, refurbishment
- 29:46or construction costs that you've incurred.
- 29:49Even if you incurred them 51015 years ago, there's a there's a
- 29:52small window of opportunity now to be able to identify any
- 29:56missed claims and claim them in your 2425 tax return.
- 30:00For those of you already paying tax, excuse me, I've paid tax in
- 30:04the last couple of years. There's no better time to be
- 30:06looking at your cap allowances now because you can effectively
- 30:08go back a couple of years, get some cash from payments.
- 30:13We've just finished a case for somebody who's, believe it or
- 30:15not, use a big accounting firm. I've got 15 holiday let's with
- 30:18millions of pounds and haven't claimed their cap allowances.
- 30:22And let's just say we've saved them a hell of a lot of money.
- 30:24So don't assume or presume. Never assume or presume.
- 30:29Get in touch with the team at Zeal to check that you haven't
- 30:31got any unclaimed cap allowances.
- 30:33It's a quick thing to do and can save you 10s of thousands of
- 30:36pounds. So I know we keep going on about
- 30:38it, but there really is a small window now.
- 30:41And you know, if you've thought about it or been thinking about
- 30:43it, now is the time to act. Yeah, I mean the, the vast
- 30:46majority of holiday let owners in the UK have not claimed their
- 30:50capital allowances. And honestly it's just going to
- 30:53mean they're going to pay a lot more tax.
- 30:55So Matt, just tell us like when, when is the actual deadline?
- 30:58When do people have to get in touch with you to have that
- 31:01discussion about capital allowances if they haven't
- 31:03already? Yes.
- 31:03So the hard deadline will be January 2027 and that's the
- 31:07deadline to amend your 2425 tax return as as individuals, if
- 31:11you're a limited company, it's going to be around early 2027 as
- 31:15well, might even be end of 2026 for some.
- 31:19But if you're doing your tax things at the moment and you've
- 31:22got tax to pay or potentially you've got tax to pay, get in
- 31:25touch as soon as possible so you can make sure that we can get
- 31:27the claim done by the end of January.
- 31:29Definitely make it a New Year's resolution if you have to claim
- 31:33your capital allowance. We could not be clearer, Matt.
- 31:37It's been a real pleasure. As ever, thanks for joining us
- 31:40on the Host Planet podcast. Always a pleasure, James.
- 31:42Great to chat to Matt Jeffrey there from Zeal Tax.
- 31:45Make sure you claim your capital allowances right now.
- 31:49That's just about it for today's episode.
- 31:51Remember, this podcast is brought to you in collaboration
- 31:54with House Philly, which is trusted by short term rental
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- 32:27podcasts, and download a suite of ebooks for hosts and property
- 32:30managers. That's it for today's episode.
- 32:33Until next time, happy hosting.