Can I offset furniture storage against tax?

[jeremydredge]

Can anyone help me?

Just in case this was not seen in he old forum.

Can I offset furniture storage against tax? :confused:

Many thanks
Jeremy

[Nora Kay]

I don't know for certain, but would suggest that money paid for this purpose isn't directly concerned with letting a property, - ie, if the furniture is in storage, it is not being used in the letting.
To be sure, why not phone your tax office and ask?

[davidjohnbutton]

I had a look in the tax guide relating to income from let property from the IR and it does not specifically exclude or include guidance on this.

Personally, I do not think that the cost of storage of furniture in order to facilitate a letting is not so far divorced that it could not be included in a profit and loss account. For example, property let at £100 per week = £5200 - cost of storage, £2000 = net profit of £3200

I would include it in profit and loss calculations and see what the IR say - if they want to disallow it, you will soon know!!!

[Ericthelobster]

I would include it in profit and loss calculations and see what the IR say - if they want to disallow it, you will soon know!!!
I'm quite interested in this from a general standpoint. If (like me) you complete a standard online tax return form, you just enter numbers under the following headings:

Expenses:
Rent, rates, insurance, ground rents etc.
Repairs, maintenance and renewals
Finance charges, including interest
Legal and professional costs
Costs of services provided, including wages
Other expenses

If you entered something you weren't sure about, such as "furniture storage" under "Other expenses" how would you alert the IR to the fact that you aren't sure whether it's allowable or not - enter something in a 'notes' field somewhere? Once you click 'send', that's it; it calculates your tax bill and you can pay it there and then. I'd be a bit concerned that the 'dubious' claim would just go through unverified, and I'd never know whether it had been looked at or not; and then in years to come if I got picked for a spot check they'd clobber me for a non-valid expense claim...

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but this is the IR...

[Jennifer_M]

People, just phone the IR if you're unsure about something ! That's what they're there for.

[Yardleystar]

There is no list of allowable expenses that can be set against rent received.

The definition is "any expense incurred wholly, necessarily and exclusively for the purposes of letting a property"

I would suggest the costs of storing items purchased for a furnished let that are removed to allow the property to be let unfurnished are allowable. If personal items were also stored with them, I would apportion the costs pro rata the space letting\personal items took in the store.