For owners of holiday lets - a short window of opportunity

If you own a furnished holiday let in the UK or the European  Economic Area you may be able to claim Capital Allowances (CAs)on your property from HMRC. However to get maximum benefit you must act quickly.

Most owners claim wear and tear on furnishings but many do not realise that they can claim on such features as electrics, plumbing, communications etc. Many claims can be quite lucrative. We are currently processing a claim on a holiday home where the CA has been calculated at £185,000. This means a tax rebate for the owner of £61,000 which he can currently set against his personal tax.

The urgency is because in April it is expected that the qualifying rules will change. This change was supposed to happen last April but it was deferred, and although nothing has been announced yet, the expectation is that it will come into force on 6 April 2011. At present the property must be available for rental for 140 days per year, and let out for a minimum of 70 days.

Currently a significant benefit is that any claim or losses created by the application of capital allowances can be offset against any of your sources of income. The proposed changes are expected to be that the qualifying period will be extended to 210 days of availability and 105 days of occupation and significantly the allowances will become ring fenced purely to the property income itself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is obviously an opportunity to recover some money from the Revenue that you do not want to miss. We can help you establish if you are entitled to a make a claim, and the beauty of our process is that it costs you nothing to find out. We use chartered surveyors to assess your property, so that absolutely everything is covered and they create a submission for HMRC. This stage can be quite difficult because the rules are complex and is why the claim is not often made. Do not worry - we do all this for you. The process can take several weeks which is why you need to act now.

For more information contact phil@findmeahome.uk.com   01932354823

Phil Arnett