Landlords I have a tax question

[tinselytinselymum]

Hope someone can help. I HATE the self-assessment time of year!

I need to do a tax return regarding the renting out of our old home. This is the first one we will have done.

I can't work out whether it should just be in my name or DH's too. The deeds and the mortgage are in both names. I do all the paperwork etc and the rent is paid into my bank account. I am a SAHM so I had thought I should declare it to HMRC just in my name (to take advantage of my unused personal allowance). However, I'm not sure whether this is allowed as the rental income does in reality belong to both of us. Also, from a Capital Gains Tax point of view would it be better to have the rent registered with HMRC in both our names (to be able to take advantage of two allowances)? There may not be much of a capital gain though (if any). We may try to sell it in a few years, although we may move back.

We are currently living overseas and plan to for the next few years at least, maybe forever. I don't know whether it is significant but if DH were in the UK he would be classed as a higher-rate tax payer.

Anyone got any advice please? I have a complete mental block when it comes to tax.

This might help. It links through to here, which I think suggests you should be doing two tax returns and each declaring half the income (unless you have other arrangements for how the ownership of the property is split).

Is this income relating to 2012-13, i.e. the tax return is due at the end of Jan? It's late in the day if you need to request a second self-assessment form.

Best thing to do is phone HMRC and ask, the number to call from overseas is given on this page.

Hello. Thanks for that link - I'll have a good look now.

Yes it is the tax return that needs filing by the end of the month DH and I already have our self-assessment log-ins and filing requests etc from having had a (tiny!) limited company until recently. So all ready to go if I could just get my head around it all.

get on with it, the system gets very slow and may crash at the end of the month.

you split the income, and all expenses which you use to calculate your taxable profit. The house is in both names, the mechanics of how does the sums and which account it goes into don't matter.

there's a box on the return to declare that you are sharing the income with someone else. Bizarrely it doesn't ask who...

as non-resident landlords you need to get your tax position right - if your agent has been paying you without deductions then you may have a bill, if they have been deducting the standard figure then you may have a reclaim.

worry about CGT when the time comes, the rules move all the time. The house belongs to you both so that's all that matters.

BUT when I did this a few years back, the online system didn't have a non-residents page so if this is still the case you may be stuffed. Hope not!!

I did mine I lived overseas and I had to complete a manual non residents form - this was 2009 to 2012.

Thanks Special and Financial. It seems pretty clear that it needs to be in both our names. I've heard other people say they were just putting it in the name of one person to be tax "efficient" but I want everything to be 100% above board so we'll both declare it.

We discovered last year that the online system wasn't geared up for non-residents, which is a pain. We submitted it using professional software the HMRC told us about, so thankfully no snail mail to have to factor in

Thanks everyone. Guess what I'm going to be doing today??