Tax Planning

There will never be an optimal ‘one-size-fits-all’ business structure for tax purposes. At the foot of this page, there are several links to articles and videos explaining some of the options you might like to discuss with us.

Effective landlord tax planning utilises all available tax breaks legislation provides for. Nobody in their right mind wants to pay more tax than they are supposed to pay, but not everybody knows how to go about optimising their tax position or even the existence of many forms of tax relief or ownership structures available to them.

With the correct planning it may well be possible for you to utilise tax legislation to optimally restructure your property rental business, without any requirements to refinance or to pay capital gains tax or stamp duty. We are not referring to loopholes or tax dodges, but perfectly legal structures that your Financial Adviser or Accountant might never consider bringing to your attention.  This is because restructuring a business involves ‘reserved legal activities such as drafting Shareholders Agreements, redrafting Memorandums and Articles of Association, drafting Declarations of Trust, conveying properties and preparing Sale and Purchase Agreements. Only qualified, experienced, regulated and insured lawyers such as Cotswold Barristers can advise on and perform these activities.

Prior to introducing the Section 24 legislation “restricting finance cost relief for private landlords to the basic rate of tax” in his Summer 2015 Budget, the Chancellor at that time (George Osborne) commissioned the OBR (Office of Budget Responsibility) to produce an impact report. That report suggested that 19% of all private-sector residential landlords would be affected by the legislation and pay more tax. Therefore, we can deduce that upwards of 500,000 UK landlords are higher-rate taxpayers and are adversely affected by this legislation.

The Property118 Tax team, in association with Cotswold Barristers, are specialists in advising on incorporation relief, but not all landlords qualify for the reliefs to make a viable case to proceed down this path. Therefore, we also recommend a variety of other ownership structures.

All recommendations are bespoke, we do not believe in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.

Our specialist landlord tax consultants provide guidance on the pros and cons of sole ownership, joint ownership, Partnerships, LLP’s, Limited Companies, and Plc.’s as well as transitional relief available to switch between these various ownership structures. Our tax and legal team also provide guidance on non-resident status and benefits as well as property-related business continuity, legacy, and inheritance tax planning.

Each of our barristers has £10,000,000 of Professional Indemnity insurance per Client and they prepare each case as if it will be investigated by HMRC.

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