ginganinja

And more specifically to do with lodgers or renting of property.

I am moving jobs in the not too distant future and a mate has offered to either rent or live in my house in my abscence for a small monthly fee of course.

Question is whats the rules regarding taxation of the Rent / Lodging income?

Any help would be appreciated

(ps. the amount would be less than my current mortgage payment)

Scooby Soon!

wasnt this on radio 2 yesterday?

I think they said if they share your bathroom its tax free!

Phil

Income is income !!!

Will be taxable I am affraid

Tiggs

not quite - within limits lodgers can be tax free

Diesel

Do a search under the 'rent a room scheme' for tax details. The balance should be cash or favours!

douglasb

For the income to be tax free, you need to be living on the premises and the rental income needs to be under something like £4K per annum. Basically, the idea is that if you rent out a spare bedroom the income isn't taxable.

Don't know if sharing a bathroom or kitchen is necessary to quallify for this, but the key theing is that you (as the homeowner) need to be living at the same address and not providing meals for the lodger. (Did this myself about 15years ago when the rules were introduced).

As it sounds like you'll be living elsewhere and renting out the house in your absence the income will be taxable.

ginganinja

Thanks,
It seems that my initial thought was right, Mr Brown is once again going to take some more of my cash for doing sod all. Mind you I am hoping that my mortgage will be payed off by some unknown benefactor, after all it is an insignificant amount of money!!!!!!

Brit_in_Japan

If you rent it out to a third party then bear in mind you really need a letting agent, you need your mortgage lender's permission to let your property (they usually charge a fee for granting permission) and you need specialist landlord's insurance, to cover legal fees should you need to evict a bad tenant and to cover any possible property damage.

Of course if you rent to a mate and you can really trust them, you save a fair bit of money (especially if the rent is paid cash in hand )
Look at the Revenue & Customs pages for information on the "rent a room" scheme where money received is tax free if below a certain value.