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The ‘Let Property’ campaign is just one of the many government initiatives by HMRC to try and claim back some of the estimated £500 million in unpaid tax revenue. In the past, HMRC has targeted numerous groups of people for non-compliance, but last year it focussed its attention on landlords.
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HMRC believes that a lot of landlords are failing to disclose their earnings from rental properties. In some cases the omission is down to a lack of understanding about tax obligations, but in other cases the omission is deliberate. Landlords were warned last year that rental income needed to be disclosed to the taxman or heavy fines would be imposed.
Help for Landlords from HMRC
The Let Property was introduced to encourage landlords to come forward and declare their earnings from rental property. HMRC has provided a set of tools to assist landlords in bringing their tax affairs into order, including offering clear guidance on how they should submit a report. If a landlord voluntarily makes a disclosure to HMRC about their tax affairs, they will benefit from more favourable terms. If they choose to ignore the campaign and are subsequently caught owing tax, heavy penalties are likely.
Landlords Face a Long Wait
Telephone helplines have been set up so that landlords can call HMRC and find out what their obligations are, but the campaign has been so successful that HMRC staff are now overwhelmed with enquires and there is a huge backlog of submitted disclosure forms. Because of this, tax experts reckon that landlords could end up waiting for months before they hear whether (or not) their disclosure form has been accepted.
