Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

Presumably the HMRC and Treasury know how EXACTLY many landlords and rental properties are owned by sole traders vs Ltd companies. And geographical spread. Does anyone here have the data – if so, please share?

The reason I ask, is because as said before, I think the ones who will not be affected or only mildly affected are:

(1) Private landlords with 1 or 2 properties who took a small punt on the residential property market whether intentionally or not (‘accidental landlords’).

(2) Any incorporated landlord businesses however large or small.

The ones who will be very adversely affected will include (a) some chancers or ‘spivs’ as the anti-landlord forums love to paint everyone with the same brush, but also (b) a significant amount of passionate and focussed professional landlords, who may provide a far better ‘service’ than either (1) and particularly the larger entities in (2) above could ever hope to…

…yet whose accountants in the case of (b) advised to be sole traders rather than ltd.

To make their conclusion more plausible, I see no reason why the Treasury are withholding the data and detailed analysis from us? Unless it’s nothing more than a politically motivated tax grab of course?

The Chancellor also know how apathetic the nation is. It is this apathy and the ignorance of people that lets the power to be to walk all over us.

Just imagine if this could be done in France, Spain or Italy.

Don’t expect many builders, plumbers etc to be able to comprehend what this is all about. I use them all the time.

My English Plumber who I had been using for years is almost a family member. Was very upset that his father has to go to the Hospital for regular check up. The father decided that he would not go because he cant afford the Bus fare.

The father is over 70. When I told the Plumber he could get a Bus pass. The Plumber or his father was not aware of the Bus pass for the elderly..

Reply to the comment left by “Ahmad Jibril” at “09/08/2015 – 21:31“:

No, Ahmad. Behave. We don’t like defeatism.
You can start planning your mitigation, as can others – it’s always good to plan for the worst case scenario. But in the meantime, we tackle this thing head on. The petition is only one part of this – in many ways it’s been useful to raise awareness. It is disappointing we haven’t got more to sign, but it’s no biggy. I read somewhere that petitions can also be counter-productive because they can stop people from taking other approaches. We haven’t done that – we’re attacking this thing in loads of ways. There is no way I am anywhere near giving up on fighting a complete 100% injustice that is going to cause untold misery and is the worst thing inflicted on private landlords ever, and also a terrible attack on business, that could set a dangerous precedent. I think it is shameful for a British Government to introduce something that would be more at home in a totalitarian state. Onwards and upwards!

@Mark,
Of course the treasury know. There is a box on the self assessment form, plus the solicitors advise all purchase/sales of a property.

The deposit protection has record of all the landlords/deposits protected. I had tried to clear my account as many of my tenants had left and their deposit refunded. I could not do this and when I contacted them I as told I cannot do nor can they as the information belongs to the Government.

Were, we told that this information was going to be passed onto a Government department ? Where is the data protection ???

It always annoys me when people are happy to give information to all & sundry . whilst taking a view that they have nothing to hide.

Reply to the comment left by “Barry Fitzpatrick” at “09/08/2015 – 11:05“:

Hi Barry

This is the link you need to make an FoI request.

https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/shortforms/form/DPU_FOI_Request?dept-name=DPUFOI&sub-dept-name=&location=37&origin=http://www.hmrc.gov.uk

I have already submitted several of my own recently so they might see me as a pest if I submit any more.

The text I was recommended to use is as follows ….

This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The request is in connection with the Government’s plans to restrict finance cost relief for individual landlords.

[THEN ADD YOUR QUESTION – ONE PER F.O.I. REQUEST]

Please let me know when you get a response, it should be with 25 days.
.

My post @22.06. Should read @ ROS.

Indeed Ross, we should fight them on the beaches spirit is required.

I would like to come clean on this one. I am marginally affected by this. I am however outraged on the wicked, deceptive & sinister way this has been done.

Don’t believe about Bank of England alert on BTL mortgages etc. This is pure theft only matched by Mr Browns raid on Pensions & soon to be raid on Pensions Mr Osborne

The whole principal of taxation that had been established for decades have been hijacked.

Reply to the comment left by “Gary Dully” at “09/08/2015 – 16:05“:

Can the interest be reserved to offset against the ultimate CGT bill at 40%?

Reply to the comment left by “Gary Dully” at “09/08/2015 – 16:05“:

Hi Graham

Please advise how you get to the figure of a 32 pence rent rise being required for every £1 of finance cost.

I get 20 pence for high rate tax payers and I also appreciate that a further 40% has to be added onto the 20 pence to allow for the 40% tax on the extra 20 pence. However, that gets me to 28 pence.

So how do you get to 32 pence please?

Are you assuming all landlords landlords will be 45% tax payers? In that case it would be an extra 25 pence for every £1 of finance cost plus 45% on that, i.e. 36.25 perce per £1 of finance cost.

Interestingly, the latter is where I will be, even though my “real profits” are quite modest, albeit into the 40% tax band as things stand now.
.

Reply to the comment left by “Mark Shine” at “09/08/2015 – 21:55“:

We really do need the figures. If the Treasury can make the statement that only 20% of landlords will be affected (1 in 5), and if we assume that these are the largest portfolio landlords, then we could be talking huge numbers of houses, multiplied by the number of tenants in each house (including children). Anyone care to take this one on? We don’t have a clear picture. I have read variously that there are 2 million landlords and then that there are 1.6 million. Then, we need to know on how many properties there is an outstanding mortgage, as only these will be affected, and of course only where the landlord isn’t incorporated… Maths isn’t my strong suit. But if someone could volunteer to research and work on this and come up with some figures that would be great. If we then had to say ‘these are our estimates as we are not privy to the same data the Treasury has’ that would be fine; but just to have some idea is very important.