We have known this was coming and most landlords, who are playing by the rules, welcome its arrival. The taxman is seeking powers that will catch out thousands of buy to let landlords and potentially triple the income they receive from Britain’s 70 000 landlords.
Essentially, the law change they are after will allow them to compel letting agents to hand over the names of all landlords on their books, both past and present. Those of us who are doing things properly and have declared our properties as buy to let and paid the appropriate taxes have nothing to fear from this move, but the thousands of landlords who seek to avoid paying tax by not declaring their properties buy to let could be in for some real trouble. This is especially true as the new power also extends to accountants.
HMRC have already raised an additional 100 million pounds in taxes after a campaign to find out landlords who remained undeclared was a major success for them. They estimate the new laws will provide them with a further 200 hundred million.
As much as we may all moan about taxation, most of us realise it is a necessary evil and pay our taxes just as we should so I don’t think there will be too many legitimate landlords shedding tears over this new law. If everyone paid the correct taxes then the burden should be reduced for the rest of us, theoretically.
