Finances

One of the main goals of the system is to make it easier to manage your finances by keeping accurate records of income and expenditure and, in particular, to help you complete your tax return at the end of each financial year. The finances page provides the following facilities to help organize your finances:

• Statements
• VAT
• Reconciliation Worksheet
• UK Tax worksheet

Statements

The statements page allows you to produce a financial statement for a property unit or portfolio over a given date range. It can be used for multiple purposes such as:

• Producing simple statements for your business
• Exporting transactional information into Excel

Specifying the scope of the statement

The controls at the top of the page allow you to choose the information that is displayed in the statement:

• Property Unit: Allows you to restrict the statement to a particular property unit and all it's sub-units.
• Date Criteria: Allows you to restrict the statement to a particular date range. You can either choose a month from the drop-down or specify a specific date range.

When you change the criteria, the list of transactions in the statement is automatically updated and the summary totals recalculated. If the chosen property unit has an owning landlord recorded against it then the landlord's details will also be added to the statement header.

Changing the opening balance

The opening balance for the statement defaults to 0.00. However, you can change this by clicking on it and then typing a new value into the edit box that appears.

Adjusting the statement

You can change the statement by adding, editing or deleting transactional information. When you edit transactions from the statement page, the dialog box for the income or expenditure record will contain an additional field at the bottom which allows you to override the summary line that is displayed on the statement. This allows you to customize exactly what appears on the statement.

Additional notes

See also the Detailed Statement Report.

VAT

If you have a VAT registered business then the system can help you track VAT elements of transactions.

Setting up VAT Tracking

You can enable VAT tracking as follows:

• Click on the Admin link at the top of the page.
• Click on the Business Setup link to access details of your business.
• Navigate to the VAT tab of the Business Setup dialog.
• Check the Enable VAT checkbox.
• Enter the VAT Registration No. for your business.
• For more details, refer to the help for the Business Setup dialog.

Recording VAT

Once VAT tracking has been enabled, you will see the following additional fields in a number of dialogs (Income dialog, Expenditure dialog, Tenancy Charge dialog, etc.):

VAT Management and Making Tax Digital

Clicking on the VAT Management link under the Finances menu will take you to the VAT management page where you can connect to HMRC's Making Tax Digital gateway and produce VAT statements.

Introduction to Making Tax Digital (MTD)

Making Tax Digital (MTD) is a key part of the UK government’s plans to make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right and keep on top of their affairs. The aim of the initiative is to make tax administration more effective, more efficient and easier for taxpayers, through the implementation of a fully digital tax system.

From April 2019, VAT-registered businesses with a taxable turnover above the VAT threshold of £85,000 are now required to keep records digitally and to use software to submit their VAT returns through the Making Tax Digital service.

Making Tax Digital for income tax and corporation tax will come into effect once the VAT scheme has finished a successful rollout. This is currently projected to be from April 2020.

See the following HMRC guide for more details:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-tax-digital/overview-of-making-tax-digital

VAT Management page

When you first access the VAT Management page you will see links to learn more about the Making Tax Digital initiative, to sign up your business for Making Tax Digital and a link to authorize connecting to your HMRC account. Follow these instructions to connect to your HMRC account through the Making Tax Digital gateway.

Once you are connected, the VAT Management page will display the following information live from your HMRC account:

• Open Periods
  • Displays the VAT periods that HMRC considers open for your business.
  • Use the Go Statement button to navigate to the VAT statement for the period. You can review and edit VAT statements and, once you are happy that the figures are accurate, you can submit a VAT return to HMRC through the MTD gateway. See the VAT Statement Page section below for further details.
• Submitted Periods
  • Displays the VAT periods that have been submitted to HMRC for your business.
  • Use the View VAT Return button to show the figures that were submitted for a period.
• Liabilities
  • Shows the list of open liabilities that HMRC has recorded for your business - i.e. VAT payments that HMRC consider are due from your business.
• Payments
  • Shows the list of payments that you have made to HMRC.

Important notes:

• The information displayed for your business is fetched directly from HMRC through their Making Tax Digital gateway. It will only show information from the point you sign up for Making Tax Digital and will not include any information prior to that point.
• When you submit a VAT Return it can take several working days for liabilities to be reflected through the Making Tax Digital gateway.
• When you make a payment for a VAT Return it can take several days for the payment to be reflected through the Making Tax Digital gateway.
• If you have waited more than 5 working days for liabilities or payments to appear and they are still not displayed then you should check your Business Tax Account or contact the VAT General Enquiries helpline.

VAT Statement Page

The VAT Statement Page displays summary VAT return figures for a selected period as well as the detailed transactions that contribute to the statement.

The VAT Statement Page supports two accounting methods to determine the rental income to include on the page:

• Cash Basis: The VAT statement will include actual income transactions received.
• Accruals Basis: The VAT statement will include expected income transactions as per tenancy charges.

The summary section displays the headline figures used on a standard HMRC VAT return. If you are connected to your HMRC account and the VAT Statement is for an open HMRC VAT Period, then you can submit these figures as a VAT return directly from the system.

The detail transaction section of the VAT statement displays the effective VAT classification for each transaction. You can override this by editing the transaction and setting the VAT Classification field. See the Transactions help topic for further details.

The VAT statement can be exported to PDF, Excel or Word formats. It is recommended you export the statement after submitting to HMRC.

Reporting VAT

Once VAT tracking has been enabled, you will see the Net Amount, VAT Rate and VAT Amount fields displayed on the following reports in addition to the VAT Statement page described above:

• Statements
• Landlord Statements

Additional Notes

• The VAT Tracking feature is only available to upgraded customers.
• Although the system makes the task of recording and reporting VAT much easier, we always recommend the use of a professional accountant or tax advisor to ensure you meet the requirements of the HMRC.

Reconciliation Worksheet

The reconciliation worksheet is used to perform functions such as reconciling transactions against bank statements.

It works very much like the regular Statements page, but also allows individual transactions to be marked as reconciled and allows the list of transactions to be filtered by those that are reconciled or not.

Specifying the scope of the worksheet

The controls at the top of the page allow you to choose the information that is displayed in the worksheet:

• Property Unit: Allows you to restrict the worksheet to a particular property unit and all its sub-units.

• Date Criteria: Allows you to restrict the worksheet to a particular date range. You can either choose a month from the drop-down or specify a specific date range.

When you change the criteria, the list of transactions in the worksheet is automatically updated and the summary totals recalculated.

Changing the opening balance

The opening balance for the worksheet defaults to 0.00. However, you can change this by clicking on it and then typing a new value into the edit box that appears.

Reconciling transactions

The Reconciled? column shows whether or not each transaction is reconciled. Clicking on this button for a transaction toggles its reconciled status.

The drop-down selector at the top of the Reconciled? column can be used to filter the list of transactions to show just those that are reconciled or just those that are not reconciled.

If the worksheet does not reconcile, transactions can be edited or deleted using the links in the Actions column of the transaction table or added using the links in the Actions menu on the left-hand side of the page.

UK Tax Worksheet

Clicking on the Finances link at the top of the page and then the UK Tax Worksheet link will display a web page which makes it easy to complete the Properties section of the UK tax return (section SA105).

Important Notes:

• Although the system makes the task of producing a tax return much easier, we always recommend the use of a professional accountant or tax adviser to ensure you meet HMRC requirements and to ensure you optimize your overall tax exposure. In particular, the specific guidelines for SA105 form change with each new tax year so it is important the details you submit on your tax return are professionally reviewed and valid with respect to the latest regulations.
• The web page is designed to calculate figures for Property Income. It will not calculate correct figures for Furnished Holiday Lettings as they are subject to different rules.

The page consists of three main sections:

Tax Summary

The first section of the page is laid out as per the UK Properties (SA105) section of the UK tax return. Those items of information that can be automatically calculated are shown within disabled fields so you can see them but can't change them. Those items of information which cannot be calculated are shown as standard editable fields which you can change. When you change one of the editable fields you can click on the button called Save and Update to save your changes and to update the calculated totals.

If you want to see how the totals are calculated then click on the link Show Detailed Calculations. This displays a detailed breakdown of the calculations as described in the Working Sheet for calculating profit and loss described in the HMRC notes for the SA105 form.

Supporting Detail for Income

This section shows a detailed list of the income records which contribute to the Property Income totals of the Tax Summary section. This allows you to see exactly which records have been included and also allows those records to be changed if you need to adjust them. There are three groups of income records:

• Rental Income - A detailed list of rental income records used to calculate the total income. See the section below on Accounting Methods for additional detail about this section.
• Additional Income - A detailed list of additional income records.
• Non-Taxable Income - A detailed list of those income records which are not considered taxable.

These sections are designed to make it easy to review and validate the income record detail which is used to calculate the figures in the tax summary. The tax basis information recorded against tenancy charges is used to determine which of the above groups an income record belongs to. If a particular income record is in the wrong section then you can change it by either assigning it to a different tenancy charge or by changing the tax basis of the tenancy charge itself. See the help on tenancy charges for further information.

Supporting Detail for Expenditure

This section shows a detailed list of the expenditure records which contribute to the various sections of the Tax Summary. Each record shows the Tax Category to which it has been allocated and shows whether it will be used to offset against rental income. You can edit individual expenditure records if you need to adjust them.

The section also includes a summary of expenditure by tax category. This is especially useful for validating the amount of expenditure assigned to tax categories which are not deductible as expenses. Typically, this includes Capital Expenditure, additional categories which you have added or expenditure which has not been allocated to a tax category.

Accounting Methods - Cash vs Accruals

There are two methods that can be used to calculate your annual UK property income tax: Cash Basis or Accruals Basis (aka Earnings Basis). The tax worksheet supports both accounting methods. You can choose the accounting method by using the 'Accounting Method' drop-down option - make sure to click on the Save and Update button to update the tax worksheet after changing this option.

Cash Basis

The Cash Basis can be used when the income generated from your property rental business (before allowable expenses are deducted) does not exceed £150,000 in the tax year. Under the Cash Basis, the income tax calculation is based on when rent was actually received and when expenditure was actually paid.

Under the Cash Basis the tax worksheet calculates rental income by adding up the actual income received and recorded against the financial period. The Rental Income detail table will list all those income records that were used in the calculation. You can use the actions against each income record to edit them if, for example, an income record is assigned to the wrong financial period.

Accruals Basis

The Accruals Basis follows conventional business accounting methods. The income tax calculation is based on the period in which the rental income is due and when expenditure was incurred. You can use this method regardless of whether the income generated from your property rental business (before allowable expenses are deducted) exceeds £150,000 in the tax year. In other words if your annual rental income is below £150,000 per year then you can still use this method. However if it is above £150,000 then you must use this method.

Under the Accruals Basis the tax worksheet calculates rental income by adding up the income due during the financial period, regardless of what was actually paid. The Rental Income detail table will show each of the income due records that were used in the calculation. If a particular due payment spans more than one financial period then the system will automatically calculate the proportion of it due for the financial period in question. Note that there are HMRC rules for how to deal with bad debt - see Section PIM2054 of the HMRC Property Income Manual.

Expenditure records are normally assigned to financial periods based upon the date they were paid. However, you can simply change the financial period setting of an expenditure record if you wish to assign it to a different financial period. In addition, under the Accruals accounting method, expenditure can be allocated to multiple financial periods where appropriate - e.g. for insurance cover that spans two financial periods. See the help on expenditure for more details.

Tenancy Charge Tax Basis

Each tenancy charge has a Tax Basis which determines how income records recorded against that charge are treated for taxation purposes. There are three types of Tax Basis:

• Rental Income - Income recorded against the charge is treated as regular rental income. If tax is calculated using the Cash Basis then the actual value of income recorded is used to calculate the tax due. If tax is calculated using the Accruals Basis then the income due against the charge is used to calculate the tax due, regardless of what was actually received.
• Additional Income - Income recorded against the charge is treated as additional taxable income regardless of which accounting method is in use.
• Non-Taxable - Income recorded against the charge is ignored for taxation purposes.

The default tax basis for each type of tenancy charge is as follows:

Furniture Wear and Tear Allowance

Note: HMRC announced the wear and tear allowance is abolished from 6th April 2016. Please consider the wear and tear allowance for prior tax years only.

The wear and tear allowance was introduced to make the lives of property investors easier when completing their annual tax returns. Section PIM3200 of the HMRC Property Income Manual describes how it works. In a nutshell, it allows you to offset 10% of your annual rental income against your property income tax bill. However, there are a number of conditions to be aware of:

1. This allowance can only be used for fully furnished properties.
2. If your rental income includes charges that would normally be borne by a tenant (e.g. council tax, water rates, etc.), then these have to be deducted before you calculate your allowance.
3. It does not matter how much you spend on furnishing your property. You can only offset 10% of your rental income. This means that expenditure for purchasing furnishings cannot be offset against rental income.
4. If you use the allowance, then it must be used consistently for the duration of the property ownership unless it becomes a partly furnished or unfurnished property.

The tax worksheet provides two ways for dealing with the wear and tear allowance via the option called 'Auto Calculate Furnished Wear & Tear Allowance?'. You can change this option for each property unit/portfolio and for each period (though note condition (iv) above) - make sure to click on the Save and Update button to update the tax worksheet after changing this option. The two approaches are:

1. When Auto-Calculate is off, you calculate the wear and tear allowance manually and type the resulting value into box 36.
2. When Auto-Calculate is on, it will be calculated for you.

If you ask the system to calculate the wear and tear allowance for you then it displays additional details in the tax worksheet to help you review and adjust the information so it's correct:

• The Income Details section will include an additional column to show whether the rental income comes from a fully furnished, partly furnished or unfurnished tenancy. If the column is blank for a particular rental income row then it means it has not been set for the tenancy and it's treated as unfurnished. If the furnished property is not set or is incorrect then you can adjust it easily by clicking on the Edit Tenancy Record link under the More... action. Changing the Furnished setting of the tenancy will affect all income records for that tenancy on the tax worksheet.

• The Expenditure Details section will include an additional column to show whether the expenditure is included in the rent. This setting is taken from the transaction category associated with each expenditure record and can be adjusted by clicking on the Admin link at the top of the page and then the Transaction Categories link.

• The Detailed Calculations section will show the intermediate totals used for calculating the final wear and tear allowance figure.

The wear and tear allowance is then calculated as follows:

• Under conditions (i) and (ii) it calculates the net income by adding up the rental income for fully furnished tenancies and then deducting expenditure which is included in the rent.

• It then calculates the value for the wear and tear allowance as 10% of the net income and automatically sets box 36 to the resulting value.

In addition, under condition (iii) any expenditure assigned to the tax category 'Renewal of items under Furniture W&T Allowance' is not included under the Property expenses section of the tax worksheet and hence, is not offset against rental income. Instead it appears under the Additional Tax Categories section. It's important that you assign any expenditure that cannot be claimed under the wear and tear allowance to this category to ensure the calculations are correct. It's also important to be aware that some furniture-related expenses can be claimed. Refer to the HMRC guidelines for further details.

Furniture - Renewals Approach

You don't have to use the Furniture Wear and Tear Allowance. Section PIM3200 of the HMRC Property Income Manual allows for an alternative method for accounting for furnishing related expenditure and this is called the 'Renewals Allowance' or the 'Renewals Approach'. The default data includes a number of transaction categories which you can use for this approach. The following table summarizes which transaction category should be used for each type of expenditure under the two approaches:

Finance Cost Relief

From April 2017, HMRC are restricting the finance cost relief for individual landlords on residential properties to the basic rate of Income Tax. The restriction will be introduced in stages from 2017 through to 2021.

The lower part of the detailed calculations section of the tax worksheet displays details of how Finance Cost Relief is calculated for your business as follows:

For full details of the changes to finance cost relief see the following HMRC publications:

• SA105 UK Property Form Notes
• Changes to tax relief for residential landlords
• Restricting finance cost relief for individual landlords
• Property Income Manual: Deductions: Interest: Restriction of relief for income tax purposes from 2017-2018

Additional Notes

• Once you have completed adjusting income and expenditure records for a Financial Period, you should close the Financial Period so it no longer becomes possible to change or add records to it. To close a Financial Period, click on the Admin link at the top of the page, then click on the Financial Periods link to see a list of all your financial periods. Click on the Edit icon next to the financial period you wish to close and uncheck the Open? checkbox.
• You should refer to the HMRC's instructions on how to complete the UK Property section of the tax return. In particular, you should ensure your rent income and expenditure are correctly accounted as described in their instructions and in accordance with recent legislative changes to areas such as mortgage interest relief, wear and tear allowances, etc.
  
  HMRC Property Income Manual
  SA105 UK Property Form
  SA105 UK Property Form Notes