The Business Bulletin
Landlords – are your books in order? If you are a property landlord errors in your bookkeeping can make it very difficult to monitor your profits and keep track of expenses, as well as monitoring yields on investments.
Here are some tips to manage your
across their property portfolios. This
has one of the largest tax codes in
books as a landlord and prevent the
gives accountants a mammoth
the world, so preparing even the
possibility of an investigation by HM
task that’s often more expensive
most straightforward tax return can
Revenue and Customs (HMRC) into
and long-winded than it should be
be complicated. There are various
your property income. The costs
for landlords. This leads to higher
deadlines and responsibilities for
associated with an investigation
accountancy fees and the possibility
taxpayers to be aware of. Again this
can be devastating, and even if you
that expenses go unrecorded.
will save both time and money when
are successful in defending yourself against HMRC you cannot recover your costs from the tax authority.
having your year-end accounts and tax
2. Reconcile your books
return completed by your accountants.
Set time aside to reconcile your
1. Update your books on a monthly basis
books. This means checking off your your bank account entries. Regular
3. Don’t send your rental income through a personal bank account
Only a handful of landlords maintain
reconciliation of your books will
Using a personal current account
their books monthly. Consequently,
ensure that everything is inputted
to operate your property portfolio is
when the year-end approaches, they
correctly into your self-assessment
one of the more common mistakes
are left with a mountain of bank
tax return and that no income or
landlords tend to make. We would
statements and expense receipts
losses are unaccounted for. The UK
always advise landlords run their
rental income and expenses against
Issue 13 – Finance | 17
