Hi
I’m a zero hours contact worker on a very low annual income. I’ve moved in with my partner & started renting my property last month to provide a steady income.
I’m waiting for my P60 next month so I can present figures, but to who? Should I just get an accountant but aren’t they expensive ?!
I’m hoping there’s not too much tax to pay as it’s going to take a whole years rent to pay for the work I had done on the house to rent it out 
I’ve informed the council about tenants but they were less than helpful with any further help.
(And I’m hoping these new licences won’t effect me- not HMO or housing benefits people though.)
Thanks in advance
You need an accountant.
Depends what you mean by expensive.
Expect a huge price difference when getting quotes. I know someone self employed who pays £160 to have accounts done. It will be very straight forward for them.
More expensive if you totally mess up by doing it yourself.
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They wont provide a landlord advice service I’m afraid.
You should join NRLA to get advice. Around £85 a year. Online training for landlords.
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You would need to complete a tax return each year and to do that would need to keep detailed records of all income and qualifying expenditure. This can all be learned if you dont know it, but if youre not confident then yes, you will need an accountant.
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At the end of the tax year 06/04/23 you need to declare your tax to HMRC. The gov.uk website can guide you through the process. You will need to declare all your income, any savings interest and any dividends. You say you don’t have much income so I expect it will be fairly straight forward and you can DIY. At some point in the future you may need to keep track of your expenses via an online system but the current tax return should be fine.
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You should be able to do this yourself. If you get in early you still have time to involve an accountant if you can’t work it out. You will need to complete a tax return online, via HMRC so the first thing is to register. You then need to enter your rent and expenses ( repairs, boiler servicing etc). You have until end Jan 24 to file and pay any tax due (for the tax year ending April 23.
There are explanatory notes HMRC provides for completing the tax return.
Money spent getting the property ready for letting (eg decorating) is not likely to be included. You can only include expenses incurred once the let started (although gas safety for eg would definitely be deductible).
THere is a method for calculating a deducton for mortgage interest which gives a tax credit. I have not done that bit myself as when those rules came in was already using an accountant as the business had grown.
If you have very little other income and one property, you may not be liable for tax, but you would still be expected to do a return I think.
David
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Just to add, the reason I suggested accountant was that I thought OP could do with guidance, not that it’s essential as it’s complex.
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Yes of course Mark10. I did it myself for many years, but the accountant did identify some beneficial actions to take and makes it a lot easier. For just one property though, as long as you can negotiate the system it is not too bad at all. I pay about £1200 a year for two tax returns and ongoing advice. I think it is good value.
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I have used an accountant for at least 45 years . I have a building?insulation firm and am a Landlord I put all my receits in date order, put all my ingoings and outgoings in a book( never add them up as I always get it wrong) Give all to my accountant . He does tax returns . I pay £540 and a box of chocolates and have done for about 45 years
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If you don’t want to use an accountant, HMRC have some webinars that I would recommend. There are live and recorded ones… HMRC email updates, videos and webinars for landlords - GOV.UK
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Hi Mark
Please can you send accountant contact details I need to do submit my account to a tax department
Thanks in advance
ILYAS
You will need to register for self assessment and then you can complete it online. Its relatively straightforward with different sections for income, property income, pensions etc. You can offset maintenance charges against income and if you have a mortgage, you can caim a 20% tax credit ue if your annual mortgage cost is £6,000, your personal allowance before tax is payable will rise by £1,200 (20%), giving you £12,570 + £1,200 = £13,770 before paying tax. Personally, i dont think its worth employing an accountant to administer 1 property plus income. Good luck, give it a try.
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@pam3 It doesn’t quite work like that. It’s a tax credit at 20%. It gets deducted after you’ve calculated the tax. And if you don’t have enough taxable income, you can carry the excess forwards.
So, say you rental income of £5k and finance charges of £1k. You would still have a personal allowance of £12,570, but would deduct £1k x20% = £200 from your tax bill at the end of the calculation.
If you only had £500 of income above the personal allowance, you would use £500 of the finance charges to give you no tax to pay and carry the other £500 forward to use in the future.
It is also restricted to total rental income so if you only had rental income of £500, you could only deduct £500 finance charges and carry the rest forwards.
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Good advice above from several
Defo join a landlords association
I suggest you prepare as much of your accounts as you can. Its not so hard its basically income set against allowable outgoings. Prepare that as best you can this will raise your understanding and save you money. The basic bookkeeping if u like
Then get accountant to put it together and explain it. The n you have a base line which is certified and in future years you maybe can do it yourself
Word of wisdom, dont stray too far from the base line tax people notice big changes
Oh and if you are a new landlord dont get too friendly keep it pleasant but professional
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Thank you so much for all the advice everyone. All this went in my email junk folder! Ok, I’m on it 
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