Hi - I purchased a mobile home in France last year and have just rented it out for the first time which got me thinking about declaration of the rental income. I've done some digging and can see that my mobile home doesn't qualify as a furnished holiday let as it will only be rented out for about 12 weeks a year - does this mean that I don't have to declare the rental income at all??
it means that the additional rules applicable to furnished holiday lets do not apply so it is instead simply treated as a standard let property.
everything that you earn no matter where such is earned needs to be declared and tax paid upon it.
I assume that this is a nice simple renting out of a foreign property where the client is billed and money received in the UK so no double taxation issues to worry about. (lol, goes from the hope of not being taxed at all to the potential of being taxed twice).
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Yes, I was wondering about the French taxation rules as I was reading about it last night. I did read somewhere however that any tax paid in France is deducted from the tax due in England.
To clarify, we are only renting to English people who simply pay us a deposit to secure the weeks they want and then pay us the balance six weeks before they are due to go. Would this income only need to be declared therefore over here?
I tried to find out more information online and then phoned HMRC earlier, but gave up after no-one appeared to be in any danger of answering the phone
You can claim the ground rent, key handling and cleaning as expenses on this, to off set against the rent that you will receive.
On another note, have you signed a yearly contract for the mobile home and pitch or has it been done through someone like Keycamp and they have sold you the Mobile home etc?
Only reason for saying is if you have signed a yearly contract with the owner of the site, beware that they don't put up the ground rent too much each year, just keep an eye on it.
As far as I'm aware you don't have to pay any French Tax, we didn't but that was quite a few years ago now, so don't know the rules on it for now.
You should just need to declare on your self assessment. The double taxation treaty that Shaun refers to is an agreement we have with certain other states whereby you do not get taxed twice on the same income,if income is taxed at source in the country the service occurs then you should get relief on that tax (you would normally get a certificate indicating the 'withheld tax' are you only liable for further tax over here if our tax rate is higher. If of course you are not taxed over in France it becomes taxable over here as you are liable to pay tax on your 'worldwide' income.
If you do try HMRC again you may go round in circles a bit. I tried with regards to a limited company and eventually got through to one small department who come under the umbrella of corporation tax (as its this it is offset against). Personal tax should be dealt with my the self assessment crew but be persistent with them and you will get through to the right people eventually - try using the phrases 'withholding tax' or ask for a ''letter of fiscal residence'' (which you shouldnt need but the request should get you through to the right people at HMRC)
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
