The Let Property Campaign explained for landlords

The Let Property Campaign is open to individual landlords of residential property who have undeclared UK or overseas rental income, a single room, a former home now let out, a holiday let, a student property or a portfolio. It is not available to companies, trusts or landlords of commercial property, which use other disclosure routes.

Most people in it are not tax evaders. They inherited a house, moved in with a partner and let the old flat, or believed the mortgage payment cancelled out the rent. The tax is still due, and the campaign is the cheapest way to put it right.

Four years where you took reasonable care, six where the failure was careless, and up to twenty where it was deliberate. For offshore matters an extended assessment window applies. Establishing the correct behaviour is the most valuable part of the exercise, because it controls both the number of years and the penalty range.

You are expected to reach a considered judgement and explain it, with evidence. A disclosure that simply asserts innocence without supporting facts invites HMRC to substitute its own view.

Step one is notification, which tells HMRC you intend to disclose and secures your place in the campaign. From the date HMRC acknowledges it you have 90 days to compute what you owe, submit the disclosure and pay, or propose a time-to-pay arrangement if you cannot settle in full.

In practice the work is rebuilding the rental accounts: rent received, agent statements, mortgage interest certificates, repairs against improvements, insurance and safety certificates, and replacement of domestic items relief. Ninety days is comfortable with records and tight without them, so start gathering early.

The settlement is tax, plus interest on late payment, plus a penalty expressed as a percentage of the tax. Unprompted disclosures attract materially lower penalty ranges than prompted ones, and full co-operation, telling, helping and giving access to records, reduces the percentage within the range.

The deductions people most often miss are letting agent fees, gas and electrical safety certificates, landlord insurance, service charges and ground rent, and replacement of domestic items in furnished lets. Claiming them properly reduces the tax, and everything else is a percentage of that tax.