Did you know that there are a number of things that your TaxScouts accountant can help you expense on your tax return?

• Mobile phone bill
• Work-related laptop
• Home rent and utilities
• Cleaning fees
• Repairs
• Bank and accountant fees
• Airbnb host fees

This depends on how much money you make through Airbnb.

• If you make less than £1000 annually on your holiday home, you will not have to pay tax on this.
• When you only rent out a room or area of your house (and live in the rest), you can make up to £7,500 annually before you’re liable to do a tax return.

• If you haven’t done your tax return on any income you earned between 6th April 2019 – 5th April 2020, don’t worry. The deadline for your tax return is 31st January 2021.
• If you haven’t done a tax return for previous years (ie. 2016-2017 or 2018-2019), you can still do these but you may need to pay a penalty fee.

Take a look at our Rental Income and Late Payment calculators here.

As long as you also live there, you can actually claim the first £7,500 as a flat tax relief.

It’s called the Rent-a-Room Scheme, and it’s one of the best tax reliefs landlords can get.

If you earn under £7,500 from rent, you don’t even need to declare it or submit a Self Assessment tax return.

Again, the only condition is that you also live at the property.

Read more about the Rent-a-Room Scheme here.

Don’t worry. The most important thing to do is speak to HMRC as soon as you can.

Find out if you owe any penalties with our late penalties calculator.

Two ways:

• online or by phone: but only for the £100 late filing penalty.
• print and send the SA370 form via post

In either case, you’ll need to provide a “reasonable excuse”.

You must appeal within 30 days unless you have a serious reason for appealing late.

Anything can be claimed as long as it relates directly to renting or maintaining the property:

• agent fees, accountant fees, legal fees
• rent (if you’re subletting), cleaning
• most utilities

Three important things to keep in mind:

• if your expenses are less than £1,000, don’t worry about receipts – just claim this flat £1,000 property allowance instead. Couples each get £1,000, so it’s double if you’re renting out a jointly owned property
• if you made a rental loss last year (for example, couldn’t find a tenant), you can also claim it this year. It’s called “carrying forward a loss”
• for anything that improves the value of the property (adding a patio, etc.), you can only claim them against your capital gains tax bill when you sell your property

Read more in our guide to allowable property expenses here

The documents we require depend on why you need to do a Self Assessment.

If your only reason to file one is because you’ve gone over the £150,000 earnings threshold, and your only source of income is employment (PAYE), then we only need a P60 (sometimes a P45 as well), and any P11D forms you might have received from your employer.

However, if you already have an HMRC Online Services account, we can simply connect to it and simply pull your information from there. And, in case you’re wondering, we’re authorised by HMRC to do this.

For any other reasons to do a Self Assessment, we have a longer list of documents here.

There are many tax-free allowances in the UK:

• everyone in the UK is entitled to £12,500 tax-free income – this is called the Personal Allowance
• if you made any capital gains (sold shares, property, etc.), the first £12,000 is tax-free
• first £2,000 from dividends is also tax-free
• same with the first £5,000 from savings interest (although it can be less – it depends on your tax band)

There are also a few tax-free allowances you can claim instead of expenses:

• you can claim £7,500 if you rent out a room from your own home
• you can also claim £1,000 if you are self-employed or a landlord
• if you earn under these amounts you don’t even need to declare them

You can see a full list of tax-free allowances here

HMRC has over 130 phone lines, but most of them are not relevant for everyday taxpayers.

These are the most important ones:

• For questions about Self Assessment tax returns: 0300 200 3310
• For questions about how much tax you need to pay and what reliefs you can claim: 0300 200 3300
• For questions about National Insurance: 0300 200 3500

You can see all of the HMRC numbers here

Your UTR number is a Unique Taxpayer Reference that you get when you register for Self Assessment.

It consists of 10 digits (sometimes with a letter K at the end) and is issued to you by HMRC.

Check out our guide to getting a UTR.

No, you won’t need to send anything. You should keep your Airbnb log of your income for your own records. Here are some instructions to download it.