Government Announces Changes to Making Tax Digital

Government and HMRC Climbdown

As many of you were no doubt aware 2018 was to be the year when tax went digital for landlords.  They would all be required to account quarterly and online.

On Thursday last week, the Government confirmed that only landlords receiving £85,000 per annum in rent will be required to keep digital records and then only for VAT purposes. This will now be implemented in 2019, not 2018 as previously announced.

Landlords with a rental income in excess of £10,000 will not be required to report quarterly to HMRC for income tax until at least 2020. 

This is a sensible reaction to the fact that HMRC was not ready for Making Tax Digital next year and chasing small landlords was using a “sledgehammer to crack a nut”. 

However, make no mistake all landlords will, at some point, in the future have to account digitally to HMRC on a quarterly (possibly even monthly) basis.  So a reprieve but only for the time being. 

If you require further help on this or any other aspect of managing your property portfolio give our lettings team a call today on 0117 973 9394.  If we can’t help directly we have a network of trusted business partners that will be able to help.