HMRC Landlord Task Force

On November 19 2012, HMRC announced the launch of its HMRC Landlord Task Force initiative. In a nutshell this task force is looking for property landlords in the South East that are either under declaring or not declaring their rental property income.

If you receive property income from buy to let, holiday let, renting out your second home, etc and your income from this source is in excess of £2,500 in the financial year (April 6 to April 5) you are required to declare this income by completing a self assessment tax return.

It is estimated that in London and the South East, the areas that the task force will be focusing on, up to 23% of private landlords do not fully declare their property income.

The HMRC Landlord Task Force is estimating that they will recover over £4 million in non declared taxes through this task force plus it is probable that there will be penalties and interest on top of the tax that is owed. An unpleasant side effect of being caught up in this Landlord Task Force initiative is that once someone has been found to be evading tax on their rental property, it is quite likely that HMRC will launch a full investigation in to the individual’s tax affairs. This is most definitely something that you do not want to happen. It will be extremely time consuming and if they find anything it can be extremely expensive once interest and penalties are added.

The likelihood of HMRC showing lenience towards penalties imposed is almost non existent if they catch someone through the effort of their task forces.

If you have property income that you have not declared or feel that you may have made an honest mistake when preparing your self assessment tax return, we can help.

We are experienced in dealing with HMRC and we always try and assist in reducing penalties where they have been applied, if you make voluntary disclosures the consequences will be much less severe, it is also possible that you do not have to pay any tax because your property did not make a profit.

The only way to be sure that your property tax affairs are completely in order is to get expert assistance, at prices as low as £95 + vat for a landlord tax return there is no real reason to take the risk.

The HMRC Landlord Task Force is looking for you, call us on the number below or check our prices on our tax return instant quote tool, we are here to help.

Call us to discuss your requirements on 01666 822256.