How Can Accountants Assist Landlords?

As a landlord, you need to keep on top of a lot of financial activities, from your own Self Assessment to the income from your properties, taxes, expenses, and planning for the future. 

It can be difficult to know where to even begin, never mind actually staying on top of your accounts when you’re busy. So, how can accountants assist landlords? Accountants can assist landlords by helping them stay on top of their accounts, ensuring that everything is above board, making them aware of any legal changes, and can provide valuable advice and expertise to help landlords both succeed and grow. 

Keep reading to learn more about how accountants can assist landlords with ARB Accountants, specialist accountants in Southend.

Jump To:

• Do I Need an Accountant as a Landlord?
• 5 Ways an Accountant Can Assist Landlords
• Tax Advice for Landlords
• Landlord Accountants Southend

Do I Need an Accountant as a Landlord?

Legally, landlords don’t need an accountant, but we strongly recommend that you get one. Buy to let landlords are subject to different taxation rules, and compliance can be difficult – many landlords don’t even know that they’re not compliant.

What’s more, many landlords have a full or part-time job alongside their property investment. Trying to be fully compliant, tax-efficient, keeping on top of your accounts, managing the property, and succeeding in your job can become a strain, and you may drop the ball. It’s important that the ball, in this case, is not your business accounts. 

This is where an accountant can help. An accountant will stay on top of your business accounts for you, whilst ensuring that you are fully compliant with legislation and that your taxes are as efficient as possible. Whether you’ve just bought your first property to let, or own multiple buy-to-let properties, an accountant is worth the investment.

5 Ways an Accountant Can Assist Landlords

An accountant can assist landlords in a multitude of ways, but here are some of the most beneficial:

Keep up to date with legislation changes

Legislation changes all the time, and many landlords probably don’t keep up to date with it, meaning that they may not be fully compliant. An accountant will make you aware of any significant legislative changes that require action and explain the changes to you. This ensures full compliance and reduces the time you would ordinarily spend researching and trying to understand legal changes.

Keep accounts in order

Business accounts must always be kept up to date by law, but this can be a time-consuming process, especially if you have other priorities alongside being a landlord. Well maintained accounts will help you to gain an understanding of the success of your business, with an accurate picture of your income and outgoings each month. 

It also ensures that everything is up to date, accurate, and ready for reporting at the end of the tax year.

Help to claim expenses

There are a great deal of tax reliefs that landlords can claim as expenses on the Self Assessment tax bill, but how many of them do you know about and use to your advantage? This is where an accountant can assist – an accountant will make you aware of the various tax reliefs that you can claim as an expense, and will prepare your Self Assessment tax return with this in mind.

Tax advice and planning

As well as expenses and tax reliefs, an accountant can assist with all tax matters, ensuring that you’re paying only what you need to pay, yet are fully compliant. An accountant can also help you to plan for the future with Capital Gains Tax, should you think that you might sell a property.

Access to experience, advice, and expertise

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, having an accountant on hand means that you have access to a wealth of experience, expertise, and advice that can help your buy to let business succeed. They are available to help with any questions that you may have about your accounts or about future investments and are duty-bound to provide bespoke, financially sound advice that can help you to make important decisions.

Tax Advice for Landlords

Accounts can provide landlords with a great deal of tax advice that you might not know about, or think to action at the time. Here are some tax tips for landlords that might help you out:

• Keep all receipts or documentation for any rental income and expenses. This is essential when claiming back allowances. Your accountant will be able to identify any expense and tax relief opportunities here. 
• If your property is let furnished, you can claim a replacement of domestic items relief. Capital Allowance can be used for replacing domestic items such as furniture and appliances. 
• You must keep records of your property business for 6 years after the current tax year.
• If you are both employed and self-employed, any losses from self employment can be set against your employment income and could generate a tax refund from tax already paid on employment. 
• Keep a record of any stamp duty paid. This is an allowable expense for Capital Gains Tax and is often overlooked. 
• Even if you haven’t made a profit, you must still declare income and expenses on your tax return.
• Any income losses from individual properties are set against other property income in the same year.

Don’t forget to claim business mileage for all trips. This can add up throughout the year. The current rate as of October 2021 is 45p on the first 10,000 miles and 25p thereafter.

Landlord Accountants Southend

ARB Accountant offers a Landlords Accounting Service tailored to the financial needs of landlords. Our fixed-fee services encompasses bookkeeping, tax advice, self-assessment, and incorporation. 

Our transparent service, led by experienced chartered accountants will give you peace of mind and allow you to focus on running your business, and we’re always just a phone call away to help with any queries.