I moved to Sydney in September and have rented out my flat in the UK. Obviously I now have to do a tax return as a result, and was wondering if it would pay me to get it done by an accountant?

How much does it cost, ish? I have seen quotes for 100 quid.
Is it a total ball-ache to do, and so 100 quid (ish) well spent?
Would getting it done by an accountant save me money? My affairs are pretty straightforward – but is there some sort of loop-hole witchcraftery that only accountants know about?

I appreciate that it will depend on xyz….. but in general, whats the STW landlord’s opinion? I’ve googled-around, but can’t see the wood for the ****s

Any insights greatly appreciated

I did it myself. The basics are on the hmrc site.

Basics are interest and expenses fees and capital costs are claimable main mortgage repayment isn’t. Check though!

Your profit should fit under your allowance from next year.

Also you won’t have to include it on the tax return due now as that is for 11/12. You will after April you will probably have a refund to collect on that too. You van file that one from April 5th.

Cheers Mike…. your down in Melbourne aren’t you? I hear it’s hot down there today?

Launceston in Tassie 31 so far 35 tops today, I’d rather be at the SCG 🙂

Off to brisbane next week to get away from the heat!!

I use taxcalc which costs 26GBP. Makes it easy and lets you submit online. Also has some easy to answer questions around residency etc. I found that you cannot use the basic HMRC website if you are abroard as it wont accept a foreign home address (I’m in Canada). Also what is nice is that once you have set it up one year it is very quick for seusequent years if nothing has changed.

yeah we just sent paper returns after using the calcs with out Oz address. They were fine with that (post & bill arrived)

Thanks sweaman2… I’ll take a look at taxcalc. I had a play with the smartpropertymanager(.com) software – and that looks like it might be useful, and is free.

This year I’ve got to factor-in my April-Sept salary, but next year I expect it’ll just be the rental income.

Another thing to add is that you can get an exemption from HMRC that stops your agent from deducting 25% tax at source. You still need to do a return. My agent wanted to charge £75 a quarter to deduct the tax from the rent just so I could then claim it back!
Depending on the rental income and projected out goings you may get approval for this. If the your property is in joint names you get double the tax allowance, currently around £8,800 per person IIRC.

Thanks Matt…. made sure I did that before I left. Lettings agent has been a bit flakey, but got that right 😀

It’s not that hard to fill in a tax return, but you need lots of “other” information.
I.e I’m in a similar boat to you in terms of rental income, but the tax return also wanted all the info on my wage, pension payments, and other (already taxed) income.
Bit of a faff, but as I’ve lots of expenses of employment, I’m £200 up from 2011/12.

DrP

it should be pretty straightforward, but you might fall into the non resident landlords scheme – some info here…
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/international/nr-landlords.htm

All the information is available on HMRC and other websites to complete your own tax returns. The benefit of the accountant is that they will know what can be claimed or not taking full advantage of all allowances. Also remember renting out a house is basically a business so should be calculated on a ongoing basis so that you take into account the losses made in previous years and the capital expenditure incurred for when you come to sell the property.
If HMRC have a problem with your return then it may be a ball ache resolving whilst you are in Australia but an accountant is you agent in dealing with HMRC and would do this on your behalf.
£100 doesn’t appear to be a great expense in making sure that your tax affairs are dealt with professionally but being an accountant I am biased.