Let Property Campaign

The Let Property Campaign is open to a wide range of residential property landlords including:

• landlords with one or more UK and/or overseas residential rental properties
• individuals renting rooms in their main home using the Rent a Room Scheme
• landlords who specialise in property lets for students or workforces
• landlords with holiday lettings
• individuals living abroad/intending to live abroad for more than six months and renting out property in the UK.

The Let Property Campaign cannot be used to declare rental profits in respect of commercial properties i.e. shops, garages and lock-ups.

The LPC is only available for individuals and so you cannot use the campaign to disclose income on behalf of a company or a Trust that owns residential property.

Multiple landlords of jointly owned properties will also need to submit separate disclosures for each owner’s share of the profit (if this has not already been declared to HMRC).

There are alternative ways for commercial landlords, directors and trustees to make voluntary disclosures. Please check our Tax Disclosures page or call us for more information.

There are rules that determine how far HMRC can "look back". The number of assessable years depends on what went wrong in the first place. We can discuss the background of your case with you to establish how many years need to be included in your disclosure.

There is a risk of prosecution if you have deliberately underpaid tax. You should seek professional advice to discuss the Contractual Disclosure Facility, which will protect you from the risk of prosecution for tax fraud.

You should try to obtain copies of the relevant information if you have not retained your historic records.

We can help you approach third parties to gather the necessary information. If there are still gaps in the information needed to calculate your rental profits, it is possible to use reasonable assumptions.

We can provide you with further guidance on how to overcome such issues and expedite settlement with HMRC.

Tax must be calculated on previously undeclared income and gains using the rates and allowances appropriate for each tax year in question.

The rates of tax you pay will depend on how much you earned above the tax-free personal allowance (if you are entitled to it).

A disclosure of all historic issues must be made, so it is important to ensure the property profits are not considered in isolation in case there are other issues to resolve. The tax system is complex and so you should seek professional advice to ensure you submit your disclosure on the correct basis and claim all available reliefs.

The rate of the penalty will vary depending on your circumstances and ultimately will be lower if your disclosure is voluntary and of good quality.

Penalty levels will differ depending on whether you submitted inaccurate returns to HMRC or have completely failed to register for Self-Assessment altogether.

HMRC allows reductions to the maximum penalty in a range for the quality of the disclosure and help given by the taxpayer to quantify the correct tax position. This is sometimes referred to as 'telling/helping/giving'.

We can help to mitigate your exposure to penalties and ensure that extenuating circumstances are taken into account.

HMRC has the right to check disclosures for accuracy and challenge any assumptions used. HMRC might also ask to see underlying records to verify the figures included in the disclosure.

If the figure that is ultimately due cannot be agreed upon, HMRC might issue assessments for tax and penalties it believes are due, which you have the right to appeal against.

If the appeal is unsuccessful, there are other avenues such as requesting an internal review or Alternative Dispute Resolution. However, you might eventually need to ask the Tax Tribunal to make a decision. It is therefore advisable to seek advice from a Tax Resolutions professional at the outset to minimise the risk of disagreements.

We often work with other professional advisers to assist our mutual clients. For example, on many occasions we have been appointed by accountants who are confident preparing the computations, but unsure how many years to include and how to mitigate penalties; we can advise your accountant on the scope of the disclosure and submit the final version using your accountant’s figures.

Alternatively, we can be appointed to deal with the historic disclosure in its entirety, whilst your current agent continues with regular compliance work.