Landlords: Taxation

(asked on 15th March 2024) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 6.48ff of the report by the Office for Tax Simplification entitled Property income review: simplifying income tax for residential landlords, published on 25 October 2022, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a brightline test to provide tax reliefs where property letting activities subject to income tax would qualify as a trade.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 21st March 2024

The suggestion by the Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) for a brightline test would create an arbitrary dividing line, and potential preferential tax treatment for those able to afford to buy more properties, as opposed to considering whether an activity constitutes trading or property letting on its merits. The OTS suggestions also had the effect that more activities would be considered trades. As a result the Government decided not to take that suggestion forward, but does keep all aspects of tax policy under review.

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