Buy-to-let landlords warned over undeclared tax

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Buy-to-let landlords are set to be targeted by taxation authorities as a group likely to have failed to declare their taxable rental income.

That's the warning from John Cassidy, a tax investigations partner at accountancy firm PKF, who told Inside Housing that HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) was making a major effort to clamp down on the problem.

He explained that HMRC officials viewed the owners of residential lettings as a high risk group when it came to misunderstanding the tax system and failing to submit accurate returns.

"The Revenue works on a risk assessment and they have assessed that there is a high risk of this going wrong," he told the website. "They have realised that plenty of private landlords or private property developers have got it completely wrong."

"Revenue is getting more savvy about getting data from other departments," he added. "It can get information from local authorities' council tax records or other government departments like the Land Registry."

Mr Cassidy's comments come after it was revealed that HMRC is writing to 500 self-assessment tax-payers who they believe are failing to declare the income from residential lettings.

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