UK Property - the rules

Another familiar case this week - property needing declaring properly in the UK by non-residents.

Its sadly not right that you do not need to file a tax return if your property income is below your UK personal allowance.  You do run the risk of HMRC investigations, penalties and the like.  

If you are a sole owner of a property, only if the gross income (so the rent before costs, not the profit)  is below £1,000 do you not need to contact HMRC.  If the profit is over £2,500 or your gross income is over £10,000 you must file a self assessment return.  Between £1,000 and £2,500 you need to call HMRC and get their steer - if you have other UK taxable income they may be able to take tax due  via your tax code, if not they will tell you what to do.

If you are joint owner the rules above apply to your share of the income.  

"What about rent a room relief?" you may say.  It is a nice scheme - but if you are living abroad how can you be renting out a room in your main residence....