Landlord Self Assessment idiots guide

[mydogisanidiott]

We rented out our house from November 2024. We need to pay tax. I am so cofused how to do this.

I’ve been told I need to do a self-assessment and that it is from the April after the rental starts so it doesn’t matter we didn’t do one last year.

Can you give me an idoits guide.

Includino the dates for tax year and self assembly dates and so on.

we let trough an agent. And the property has a mortgage.

You need to do a self assessment return for the 24/25 tax year as you started renting then. This will be due to be completed and the tax paid by the end of January 26 plus they will give you a payment on account to estimate what tax you are due for 25/26. Which will be more as you will have a whole year of renting to pay tax on.
Remember you get allowances against the tax so costs setting up the rental and letting agents fees are tax deductable so you may not have a lot of tax to pay from when you started renting it until 5th April 25 but you still have to do the return. It might be worth paying an accountant £300 to do it for you.

And register for self assessment now as it takes a while for your info to be processed and for you to get access to the system.

As above step #1 is to register for self assessment:

https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/registering

I'm not a landlord but had to register as I've got income/interest from inherited investments. Took a couple of tries before I was actually sucesfull; probably a box ticking error on my part.

Ah this is wonderful thank you ☺️

Husband said getting an accountant to do it would be good idea. I think I am inclined to agree

Sorry about the awful typos! Thanks for persevering!

Good accountants tend to close their doors to new business at this time of year OP because, forgive the stereotype, people asking for help now when the deadline is January tend not to make easy clients long term. I'm not saying this is you, but I think you'll see that it does apply to many.
If you approach an accountant, make it clear that you will understand, and will pay without complaint the late filing penalty of £100, if they can't file your return until February.
Most accountants, once they've agreed to take you on, will move heaven and earth to file on time, but the prospective client appreciating the size of the ask would make me much more likely to accept someone at this point.

@NeedingCoffee thank you so much.

ah I see. yes- we are accidental landlords and hoping to sell soon. We probably are not very good clients , although I am super organised with recipets and spread sheets!

I will get all the documents together this weekend. My friend does her own. Would it be worth doing our own or getting an accountan At this late stage?

are the online accountant any good? Taxfix is one I found

Will retired for a self assessment account now

If you are clear on what you can claim as expenses then the online accountants are absolutely fine. They basically take your figures and put them in the right box. Nothing wrong with that. However if you don't know what you can claim they're unlikely to help you identify everything, nor to stop you claiming something you shouldn't. For example a client I have, had previously told an online accountant that her mortgage was £25000 a year. The problem was that was the capital and the interest. And you can only claim the interest part. The online accountant happily claimed the full amount. Whereas we asked to see statements and then explained to the client that unfortunately they could only legitimately claim the interest part.

Just to add those figures were for 3 properties, before you faint at the size of the mortgage!!

You do need to do it from 2024/5 for which the online deadline is this coming 31st January. It might be that any tax liability is minimal, especially if you had related expenses, but you should register and complete a return regardless including all your income from paye and interest from savings. Then you will need to complete one for any income during 2025/6 tax year and then years beyond if you rent it rather than sell.

I don’t think you can claim the interest anymore
on residential property

OP If you have a good and detailed spreadsheet it’s easy to do your own self assessment. Just work your way through the boxes and enter the correct amounts.

Theres also good videos from HMRC online but it’s very simple honestly.

Ah sorry it’s a tax credit but only basic rate.

But if you just put all the figures in on the SA form and it does the calcs for you

https://www.which.co.uk/money/tax/income-tax/tax-on-property-and-rental-income/buy-to-let-mortgage-tax-relief-changes-explained-aHQIA2d4bjXj

Just get an accountant honestly it will save you so much time and stress. HMRC are a law unto themselves, they are not in slightest bit reasonable about anything when you’re small scale. It will cost you less than £300 for an accountant, it’s worth it and yes that is tax deductible.