So the craze of avoiding expensive hotels and for individuals to make a bit of extra spending money has taken of with the huge and rapid expansion of the Airbnb network!

​It's easy to do, relatively safe as people are vetted and money taken through a secure website and a good way to meet new people whilst making pocket money on one side and saving money on expensive accommodation on the other side.

Should this income be declared? YES!
​Is tax due on all the income received? NO!

There are 2 different types of rental: a room within your property or an entire self contained property (house, flat, etc.)

​If you're renting out a room within your home then this income qualifies for "Rent a room relief" meaning that the first £7500 is tax free.

​If you're renting out a separate property from your home then you will need to produce rental accounts. This takes all the income received over the tax year, then all relevant expenditure is removed from this income total to give you the taxable profits that need to be declared to HMRC.

​If you would like any help with calculating your accounts to check whether you should be paying tax on your Airbnb income then please get in touch with our friendly team who shall be happy to assist you further on 01275 873948 or by email at enquiries@mendipaccounts.co.uk

As you're probably aware, some changes were made affecting Landlords with affect from 1st April 2016. Notably, these concern the purchase of buy to let properties and the calculation of tax due from rental income.

​Stamp duty has risen by 3% from previous price bands. To explain this in numbers, historically a property purchased with a value of under £125,000 would have incurred 0 stamp duty, now this will incur 3% of the value thus £3,750. This is now 5% for the following £125,000 and 8% for values above this.  Quite an unfortunate rise.

​With regards to the tax calculation at the end of the tax year, please note that the wear and tear allowance of 10% of rental income has now gone. This means that careful records need to be kept of actual expenditure incurred on the property and renewal of equipment and other relevant costs. Please keep all receipts and invoices. If in doubt, best to have the documentation and show us to ensure that everything allowance is claimed. The tax calculation will be based on actual income and expenditure.

​Please feel free to call one of our friendly team members on 01275 873948 or email us at enquiries@mendipaccounts.co.uk if you need any further guidance on this and we shall be happy to assist you :)

Good news for limited companies as a nice little time saving idea has been created by Companies House to simplify administrative requirements. As from the 30th June 2016, the current Annual Return will be replaced by the new "Confirmation Statement".

​This all new statement can be updated as many times as needed during the year yet only charged once.  For many companies this means that it will simply now be a task of clicking to confirm that the company details havent changed during the year.

​The main change though will be the addition of the "PSC" (Persons with significant control) information which now needs disclosing onto the public register.

​As always, here at Mendip Accounting Solutions we're here to help, advice and to make your life easier:) Any questions please feel free to call us on 01275 873948 or email us at enquiries@mendipaccounts.co.uk