If you’ve been in the student buy-to-let business for a while, you probably think you know everything that you can claim. Professional fees, business expenses, repairs (so long as they don’t qualify as an “improvement.” However, there are always things that landlords are not always clear about.
Travel
You may claim part of your fuel cost, tax for your vehicle, car repairs, and even bus and train fairs. However, you should be careful and provide evidence that these costs are necessary and related to your buy-to-let business.
If you can’t attribute specific journeys and costs to specific reasons for visiting, then an estimate will do. For example, if 5% of your travel is visiting properties, then you can claim 5% of your vehicle costs.
Technology Costs
Naturally, you can claim any fees on advertising sites (such as Pads for Students), but you can also claim media costs. Do you subscribe to photo editing software? What about video? If you manipulate your photos before adding them to P4S, your website, or social media, then you can claim a portion of that cost – or all of it if you use it specifically for business. This is all part of your marketing.
Do you use bookkeeping programs or other businesses software? You can claim these too – ditto office packages if you use them for your work.
Insurance Policies
Insurance against damage – both contents and buildings insurance against the property for which you pay is a deductible cost. Also, going back to the travel cost, don’t forget that vehicle insurance is also claimable. If you have a specific vehicle that you only use for your buy-to-let businesses, then you can claim all that insurance for that vehicle. If you use a personal vehicle, then like fuel, you can only claim a proportion of it.
Professional Services
Naturally, you know you can claim all fees for repairs, maintenance, and services (gas safety checks etc). Building work, plumbing, electricity is all deductible so long as they fit those three categories. Upgrades and cosmetic renovations are not permissible – as stated in the intro.
Other professional services include bookkeeping, social media management, virtual assistant work, and any other day-to-day tasks for your business that you outsource to someone else to do for the business. Anything that means a human is doing a job for the property or for your business that is a necessary part of the business is claimable.
Final Note
HMRC makes just one distinction when it comes to services and new items. Is it a cosmetic change made purely to increase the property’s value? Then it is not allowable. If it is a safety change, or repairing or replacing a broken item already present, then it is allowable.