Directors may incur expenses when on the company’s business. Most travelling expenses involve the cost of running a car.
It used to be a good tax planning idea to have the company own a car and allow the director to use it for both business and private purposes, as the rules for taxing directors on their private use of a company car were very generous.
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As you are well aware, mortgages have been withdrawn in the thousands by lenders in recent months.
With property prices having fallen an average of 10% in the past year, lenders are still holding back on borrowing to would-be buyers. This has particularly been the case on new-builds (especially new build apartments) because of the way the prices have plummeted over the past months.
The valuations on new-builds have caused great concern to lenders. This is because lenders have never known what incentives, such as cash backs, discounts, stamp duty, fully furnished, fitted kitchens etc.. have been included in the sale.
The concern is that many lenders believe properties have been sold for more than they are really worth. This has led to many outstanding mortgage amounts on new-builds being greater than the actual value of the property (i.e. negative equity).
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As a landlord you are likely to have various insurance policies for your properties. These will range from the essentials like buildings and contents insurance to the desireables such as boiler breakdown, plumbing cover and electrical insurance.
Insurance policy premiums are just like our age. They only go one way and that is up, especially if you stick with the same insurer. However, make sure that whenever a buildings and contents insurance renewal comes in, you get alternative quotes as you will definitely find cheaper deals somewhere.
Just use a price comparison website such as confused.com or moneysupermarket.com and you will definitely find comparable and probably cheaper quotes.
You may also want to try quidco.co.uk where you will actually get cash back when you take out an insurance policy through them.
Property management software can track insurance costs and remind you about upcoming renewal dates. Click here for more information.
You will be surprised at how many landlords accept losing inventory items and see it as a part of the cost of running a business.
Sorry! I don’t agree and I find that most landlords who take this kind of attitude are the ones who hit cash flow issues quickly.
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If you have incurred a revenue expense for the purpose of your property, then you can offset it against the rental income.This means that you can continue to lower your tax bill – legitimately!
Yes, that’s right! On Thursday 4th September we will be exhibiting at the ‘London Landlords’ Day’ event at the Olympia, London.
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Every landlord knows that organising a large number of properties can be difficult. Keeping track of the status, occupants and finances is a difficult and time consuming task. Currently, much of the book keeping that landlords perform is paper-based or in rudimentary spreadsheet applications. These methods are primitive, unable to execute most calculations required for property-related taxes and accounting.
This is where specially designed property software comes in…
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There are several reasons why a landlord should use Property Management software (PM).
One of the biggest and most significant reasons is money. Not only will this software save landlords money, but it can also increase cash flow as well.
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Moving Properties into Joint Ownership to Avoid Income Tax
Because you can save tax by holding your property in a partnership, you may well be thinking about how to transfer to joint ownership.
It is actually very easy to do and you will incur no capital gains tax liability if you are transferring part ownership to your spouse, i.e., your husband or wife.
PLEASE NOTE: if part ownership of the property is to be transferred to anyone other than your spouse, there may be a capital gains tax liability triggered.
Three Simple Steps to Follow
The following three steps will show you how you can transfer the property into joint ownership.
A huge issue for professional landlords as they grow their portfolio is staying organised. I believe that an essential step for serious landlords is to invest in property management software.
The problem is that many landlords fail to ask the right questions before purchasing their software.
Becoming a serious investor brings new problems you won’t have experienced before. The answers are provided by clever software. The next challenge is to pick the right solution. Property Portfolio Software‘s products are specifically designed to handle the major challenges faced by landlords.
Landlords should ask the following 7 questions:
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