An infamous payday loans company has been in the news in the last few days after it emerged that the company had been sending out threatening letters from a fake law firm. HMRC doesn’t need to send out fake letters – real letters from them are normally threatening enough, so if you are a landlord who has received a terse letter from HMRC reminding you to report unpaid tax, it is a good idea not to ignore it!
Property Let Campaign
HMRC is running a Let Property Campaign. There is a disclosure channel for landlords who wish to come clean and sort out their tax affairs. If you use it, you can take advantage of reduced tax penalties for declaring previously unpaid tax. This channel is available for landlords until next summer. Landlords who have sold property or gifted property are the main targets of the campaign, but it also applies to owners of holiday lets or second homes.
The taxman has all kinds of methods at its disposal for collecting information on property investors and landlords. It trawls records from letting agents, the Land Registry, Housing Benefit records, and many other sources.
HMRC Comments
According to an HMRC spokesperson: “The message to property owners who have not paid their tax is HMRC knows about you and will make sure you pay the right amount of tax on rental profits or chargeable gains – and if you don’t tell us the penalties will be tougher if we have to come after you.”
