Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

Reply to the comment left by "Ros ." at "17/07/2015 - 18:37":

I would be quite happy to be considered a business as a self-employed person under schedule D and pay Ni on my profits as well as tax. I just hate being considered some sort of tax dodger instead of a business.

My rents are my only income so I'll be likely to be declaring bankruptcy - house prices in my area of the country haven't risen to the levels they were at 10 years ago, so I'll have a hard time covering the mortgages by selling up.

Reply to the comment left by "Ros ." at "17/07/2015 - 20:28":

how much do the mafia charge ? is gorge overstepping their rates ?

Hi Simon. Yes, if this happens we will effectively be being robbed of vast sums of money. I've never minded paying higher taxes - no problem with it at all. As long as it's tax on my profit. The more profit you make, the more tax you pay; I think we all accept that.
On the other subject of comparing landlords to FTBs, it is critical that we do this, as this has been the so-called justification of the measure. I've started looking for some research on this - if we can clearly show that landlords do not have an adverse effect on potential FTBs; if we can show that the reasons fewer younger people are buying houses is not very or at all correlated to what landlords' do, this will be a fantastic piece of evidence. The IFS has stated that this is the case, but we need statistics.

Reply to the comment left by "James Tallis" at "17/07/2015 - 21:21":

Any comparisons made to residential buyers clearly need to be made whilst drawing in the whole BTL - LL sector .ie. ltd companies/housing associations and any other corporate entities. The ridiculous notion that soletrader/partership LL are seperated off as the "bad uns" is unintelligent, deranged and clear discrimination, based on the fact that they perform and run a business/investment in an identical fashion to the other entities working in the PRS. This will blow up in George's face and clear demonstration of how & why an idividual LL is any different to the other entities will need to be demonstrated at some point. (if there is any justice in this world)...i think there is and i hope that over the next few months, as LL and biz in general begin to realise the far reaching effects of this fundamental theft and confiscation of assets , that the tide could be turned in a very big way. Today they have done a temporary Uturn on care costs, they need to do a U-turn on this as well.This is far bigger and needs publiscising properly .We are just probing and discovering the effects of " a reduction from 40/40% to 20 " which is utter disaster from 0% tax payers right through to 45% taxpayers in some shape or form . i think we need to take maybe 10 scenarios of LL right across the sector with illustrated figures and illustrate the huge problems that loom ahead....and still ask the Question ...why just the indiviual LL and not the rest ...i am no lawyer, but has there ever been a more clear illustration of discrimination ? might just as well have said "this will apply to all the (pick a colour) Landlords" as far as i am concerned.

Reply to the comment left by "Ros ." at "17/07/2015 - 22:54":

i think it is extremely important to put pressure on to make George and co show clear reason for how & why indiviual LLs differ from incorporated/institutional LLs because a weak, but fundamental arguement to not allowing interest to be deducted is that individual LL are armchair investors NOT hands on business people ...and on this basis we should not be allowed to claim borrowed money int /finacne pymts against profits. BUT as a ltd co etc clearly as a "proper buisness" of course expenses can be claimed. It is very clear that GO CANNOT apply this tax regime to "proper business" as the world as we know it will end immediately. So the simple fight is to prove that wether i/you and every other LL operate any differentially with (Ltd ) after our name is any different. I know several LL who have prop in ltd status with far smaller portfolios than most S/T LL that i know, We all KNOW how much work we put in and that we are running a business. i know LL with £5m portfolios who employ several full time staff to run said empire as S/T ...apparently this is not a business ..but the guy with a 3 prop £250K in a ltd run by a LA is a proper biz.? ok so show us how & why..Georgie Porgie , pudding & pie, you are on deluded guy.

Nice one Simon. And I like the positivity. That's the way to go!
Also, you've made a very interesting point about regarding some landlords in ltd companies having small portfolios and some of us non-ltd company landlords having much bigger portfolios... again we could do with some figures on this - this is all stuff which will strengthen our case - showing the false distinctions between us and 'the other' (in other words, every other person in the world versus the yucky landlords).
I'd like to get another letter off to George and the various relevant Ministers next week, with some of these additional arguments and hopefully others will too; plus their MPs and any organisations people can think of. Kathleen, today, had an excellent idea to write to the IFS, so I did. We had been quoting them, but it didn't occur to anyone apart from her to write to them. That is the value of a constructive, positive discussion here.

With regard to LL in general stopping FTB from purchasing homes: clearly a LL has a limit on purchase price to satisfy mortgage lending criteria AND realise a profit, i dont think it is unresaonable to expect a return on work, taking huge financial risk and on going marketing, management , repairs bad debt, cannobo sfactories, court costs, evctions, huge ongoing mental stress, countless late night calls, & call outs, people losing keys late at night,, theft of furniture, damages to property and furnishings , voids and many other daily occurences, as well as calculated risks against interest rate movements, legislation, regulation, licensing, as well as keeping on top of safety, fire regs, planning , insurance, gas certs, elec certs, did i miss anything ? ..oh yes bond protection, inventories, leases, check ins , check outs, chaisng late payemnts, filling in hb forms when people's circs change (and subsequently sorting out their whole claim), and soon as well as HMO licensing, Lanlord licensing, lanlord registration... and oh yes ...we are now to become assistants to the immigration dept as well.......YEP armchair investing just the same as buying shares in Coca cols......of course it is . George we will be giing you a little wake up call I promise x

coca cola ...edit stil not working !

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Shine" at "16/07/2015 - 21:00":

Hello Mark,
Your new taxable profit (after new rules are fully implemented is easy to calculate (Based on same figures)
Just add all of your Loan interest and other financial costs of £81762 back on to your net profit for the year £71748
New taxable gross profit: £153,510
Add this to any other earnings or profit that you have from a day job, now use any of the on line tax calculators to work out your tax bill.
See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/
The tax correction that you will get against your final tax bill is £16,352 ie (20% of £81,762)
I think I'm right with that calculation.

Great summary of the work we do, Simon. I'll be cutting and pasting it for one or more of my letters.
Also, re investments: who would invest in a 'pure financial investment that isn't a business' when you had to pay astronomical costs and face perhaps a £40,000 loss or more each year? You'd just get your broker to sell it immediately - cut your losses - I presume that's how selling stocks and shares works - no idea of the process as I'm a business person and have never gambled on those kinds of things.