Whether you have built a portfolio on purpose or inherited a flat you never planned to let, property tax has become fiddly. Section 24 means you are taxed on your rent before any allowance is made for your mortgage interest, a Capital Gains Tax bill now has to be paid within 60 days of selling, and Making Tax Digital arrives for landlords from April 2026. We keep all of this in order for you, for a fixed fee agreed before we start, and when you ring you speak to Bobby Gardiner directly; we do not use a call centre. You can book a free 15-minute call whenever it suits you.
Most of the landlords we meet are busy people with a property or two, with no particular interest in tax, who want to know that they are doing things right. The worries below are the ones we hear most often.
Let's fix it"My tax bill went up but my rent didn't." Section 24 means you are taxed on your full rent and receive only a 20% credit for the mortgage interest, so higher-rate landlords can end up paying tax on money the bank has already taken.
"I sold a rental and now I've got 60 days to sort the tax?" The 60 days for reporting and paying run from the day the sale completes, and missing the deadline means penalties on top of the Capital Gains Tax.
"I had a holiday let and the rules just changed under me." The furnished holiday lettings regime was abolished from April 2025, so the reliefs you relied on have gone.
"Everyone keeps telling me to put my properties in a company, should I?" Sometimes it is worth doing and often it is not, and getting it wrong can trigger Capital Gains Tax and Stamp Duty that you did not need to pay.
This covers everything a landlord needs to stay compliant and keep more of the rent, explained in plain English, with the awkward points flagged before they become problems.
We pool all your properties into one property business, claim every allowable expense (letting fees, insurance, repairs, ground rents) and file your return correctly. If your gross rents are £1,000 or less, the property allowance means they may not need declaring at all; above that figure, we work out whether the £1,000 allowance or your actual costs leave you better off.
Since April 2020 there has been no deduction for mortgage interest; in its place you receive a basic-rate tax credit worth 20% of the interest. We calculate the credit correctly (it is limited to the lowest of your finance costs, your rental profit and, broadly, your other income above the personal allowance), carry forward anything unused, and work out whether the restriction is tipping you into higher-rate tax.
If you sell a residential property and a taxable gain arises, the CGT due (18% within your basic-rate band and 24% above it, after the £3,000 annual exempt amount) must be reported and paid within 60 days of completion. We prepare that standalone return for you, apply Private Residence Relief where it is available, and make sure the deadline does not catch you out.
The furnished holiday lettings regime ended in April 2025, so former holiday lets are now taxed as ordinary property. We move you across to the new basis (Section 24 now applies, and capital allowances give way to replacement-of-domestic-items relief) and check whether the limited transitional rules, such as those for carried-forward FHL losses, apply to your situation.
From 6 April 2026, landlords whose gross rental income (combined with any self-employment income) is over £50,000 must keep digital records and file quarterly, then £30,000 from 2027 and £20,000 from 2028. We check whether you are caught (the test is based on gross income before expenses, and rental and self-employment income are added together), set up the software, and deal with the quarterly submissions for you.
Putting a portfolio into a company can escape Section 24 and cut tax on retained profits, but transferring properties in is a market-value disposal for CGT and can trigger Stamp Duty and the 17% SDLT enveloping rate on company purchases of dwellings over £500,000. We work through the numbers without leaning either way, and we bear in mind that from April 2026 s162 Incorporation Relief has to be claimed and can no longer be assumed.
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Section 24 means residential landlords can no longer deduct mortgage or loan interest from rental profit. Instead you are taxed on your full rent and then given a tax reduction worth 20% of your finance costs. For basic-rate taxpayers the effect is broadly neutral, but for higher and additional-rate landlords it can mean paying tax on income the mortgage has already swallowed. Being taxed on gross rents can also push you into a higher band. It has applied in full since April 2020, and it is the single biggest reason landlords feel their tax bill has run ahead of their income.
No. There is a £1,000 property allowance, so if your gross property income for the year is £1,000 or less it is fully exempt and you do not need to tell HMRC about it or declare it. If your gross rents are more than £1,000, you can choose to deduct the £1,000 allowance instead of your actual expenses, whichever gives the better result. You cannot use the property allowance, though, if you are claiming the Section 24 finance-cost credit, using Rent-a-Room relief, or letting from a company you control. We will work out which basis leaves you paying the least.
If Capital Gains Tax is due on a UK residential property, you must file a CGT-on-UK-property return and pay the tax within 60 days of completion, and that deadline runs independently of your normal tax return. For 2026/27 the rates are 18% on gains within your basic-rate band and 24% above it, after your £3,000 annual exempt amount. It is a separate online return, and non-residents have to report every UK property sale within 60 days even where no tax is due. Missing the deadline brings penalties, so it is worth telling us as soon as a sale is on the horizon, ideally before you complete.
The furnished holiday lettings regime was abolished: from 6 April 2025 for Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax, and 1 April 2025 for Corporation Tax. Former holiday lets are now taxed just like any other let residential property: mortgage interest is restricted to the 20% Section 24 credit, capital allowances on new spending give way to replacement-of-domestic-items relief, and the CGT business reliefs that made holiday lets attractive have gone. There is a time-limited transitional rule for businesses that ceased before the abolition date, and we can check whether it applies to your situation.
Sometimes, but it is rarely a straightforward decision. Inside a company, mortgage interest is fully deductible against Corporation Tax (so you escape Section 24) and retained profits are taxed at company rates while retained, rather than up to 45% personally, though you pay dividend tax when you draw the profit out (see below). Against that, transferring existing properties in is a disposal at market value for Capital Gains Tax, it can trigger Stamp Duty and the 17% flat rate on dwellings over £500,000, and you will face extra admin plus that second layer of tax when you draw profits out. Incorporation Relief under s162 can defer the CGT where you are transferring a genuine property business, but from 6 April 2026 a formal claim is required for the relief to apply. We model your specific numbers before you commit either way.
Get in touch and we will set up a free 15-minute call with Bobby Gardiner (CAT FMAAT) to talk through your properties and where you stand. You will be speaking to Bobby himself, as we do not use a call centre. If you would like us to take everything on, we will agree a fixed fee before we start so that there are no nasty surprises later. We are AAT-licensed and Kent-based, and we look after landlords right across the UK through cloud accounting.
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