Furnished Holiday Lettings Changes

Furnished holiday lettings have some specific tax advantages. On 9 December 2010 the Government released draft tax legislation that is expected to become law from April 2011. This draft law includes three major changes to the taxation of furnished holiday lettings.

1. Separate FHL businesses. In April 2009 the Government announced the tax reliefs that apply to property let as furnished holiday accommodation (FHLs) in the UK, would also apply where the property was located in a European Economic Area (EEA) country. These EEA countries comprise all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. From 6 April 2011 (1 April 2011 for companies), the profit or loss from FHL property let in EEA countries other than the UK, must be calculated separately from the profit or loss arising from UK holiday lettings. Profits and losses from any other overseas lettings must also be calculated separately and not mixed with the FHL profit or loss.

2. Restriction of loss relief. Losses made from FHL businesses after 5 April 2011, either in the UK or elsewhere, won't be available to set against your other income for the same tax year, or the previous tax year. The loss can only be set against future profits from the same FHL business (either UK or EEA based).

3. Change to lettings condition. The periods a property must be let to qualify for the FHL tax reliefs are extended from 6 April 2012 (1 April 2012 for companies). The property must be let commercially as furnished holiday accommodation for 105 days per year (previously 70), and be available for letting for 210 days (up from 140). If you let a number of FHL properties you can average let days across all your FHL properties in the UK for a tax year. You can also average the let periods for all your other FHL properties located in other EEA countries.

Once a property qualifies as furnished holiday lettings, it may fail the letting condition for up to two years and continue to qualify, if you elect for the FHL tax status to apply.

Take Care with VAT

The VATman expects all businesses to take reasonable care when completing their quarterly VAT returns. If you make a mistake, which results in the VAT being underpaid, the VATman is likely to charge you a penalty. Penalties can also be applied where a mistake results in you claiming a higher VAT refund than is due.

If the VATman believes your careless behaviour lead to the error, he will impose a penalty of between 15% and 30% of the underpaid (or over-claimed) VAT. If you can show that you took reasonable care when completing your VAT return, but still made a mistake, you should get away with a zero penalty.

Reasonable care can be demonstrated by taking any of the following actions, when faced with a VAT problem:

- Contact your supplier to query the VAT charged on their invoice.
- Read the VAT notice or VAT Information Sheet that relates to the issue, (if there is one).
- Speak to a VAT officer and make a note of the advice given.
- Seek advice from a competent adviser.

We can help you with your VAT problems, but please raise the matter with us as soon it occurs. Sometimes it can take a while to get to the bottom of a VAT issue, so its best not to leave the problem on the shelf until the day before the VAT return has to be filed!

Associated Company Changes

Companies controlled by the same people plus their relatives are counted as 'associated' for corporation tax purposes. The upper profits limit for the small profits rate of corporation tax is divided by the number of associated companies. A company with no associates currently pays 21% tax on profits up to £300,000, but a company with one associate pays tax at 21% on profits up to £150,000, and 29.75% on profits above that up to £1.5 million. This tax rule is supposed to discourage large companies from splitting into smaller ones to take advantage of the lower tax rate, but it catches many smaller companies.

For periods ending before 1 April 2011 where spouses or civil partners own separate companies, those companies are automatically associated companies, even if there is no commercial relationship between them. For periods ending on or after 1 April 2011 the companies controlled by relatives are not associated companies unless there is substantial commercial interdependence between those companies. This change could lower a small company tax bill by up to £13,125!

Substantial commercial interdependence includes situations where one company is financially dependent on the other, where they have common customers or they share the same management, employees, premises or equipment. The commercial links between the companies must be significant before the companies will be treated as associated. Please discuss with us any commercial relationships between your company and companies controlled by your relatives.