Are your tax affairs in order?

As you should be aware, if you have income from renting property you are required to complete a Self Assessment Tax Return and pay tax on any profit made.

We, along with many other Letting Agents have been asked by HMRC to provide a list of all our Landlord clients, including personal information including Bank Details, presumably so they can take a look at what property income you have had and to ensure this ties in with income you have reported to HMRC via SelfAssessment. 

We have no option other to comply with this request as it is a legally enforceable power of HMRC to request this information.

HMRC will use this information to cross check that you have been properly reporting your property income via self assessment.

Navigating the Notice – Understanding Penalties and Interest

 If you have not been reporting your property income by self assessment it is likely that once HMRC have completed their checks, you will face a “notice to file a self assessment”.  

There are penalties and interest for any tax that is overdue.  More information about the penalties can be found here:  https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/penalties

It is possible to reduce penalties by disclosing and undeclared past property income via the HMRC “Let Property Campaign”.  More details can be found here: https://letproperty.campaign.gov.uk/

If you are in any doubt about your tax affairs you can have a free initial consultation with Steven Mearns at TaxAssist Accountants. Steven is aChartered Accountant and is the founder of Northwood Aberdeen as well the Chairman of our Company.

You can contact Steven on 01224 637100 or email him at stevenmearns@taxassist.co.uk