Rent a room relief - abuse

Viscount Aggro

I have heard of this dodgy activity from a number of sources;

A homeowner is availing of the rent a room tax relief, rental income up to 14K.
Then they move out, in with a partner, or back home with parents.
It means they dont put up with other people'e sh*t.
Maybe go back to the property every few weeks to check things, collect post.

Tenigate

Yea.. I'm sure some people do this. They may have financial difficulties and decide to rent out their entire house.

First off... what's it to ya?

Second, it may not be illegal. Mortgage interest payments, repairs and maintenance, house insurance and even capital expenditure can be tax deductible. This route wouldn't rely on the rent a room scheme. Alternatively, house owner may retain a room in their home and simply be on an extended holiday to their parents. Arguably, it's not their residence but I'm sure revenue have bigger fish to fry.

dennyk

If you know that someone is evading their tax obligations and want to do something about it, you can report them to Revenue. How likely they are to take action against someone claiming Rent-a-Room relief that isn't due, I've no idea, though.

Eric Cartman

Taxation on rentals is too high anyway OP, reporting somebody would just take another property out of the loop .

You'd want a serious chip on your shoulder to be reporting somebody to revenue, id suggest a walk in the park and a nice bath to get over it instead.

Graham

Eric Cartman wrote: »

Taxation on rentals is too high anyway OP, reporting somebody would just take another property out of the loop .

You'd want a serious chip on your shoulder to be reporting somebody to revenue, id suggest a walk in the park and a nice bath to get over it instead.

That's a rather odd position to take given the 'report welfare cheats' banner in your signature.

Army_of_One

Graham wrote: »

That's a rather odd position to take given the 'report welfare cheats' banner in your signature.

Sleeper12

Viscount Aggro wrote:

I have heard of this dodgy activity from a number of sources;

There are only slightly over 6000 people officially availing of the rent a room scheme.

I'm not saying that no one is trying to fool the system but the odds on you hearing of one genuine case is extremely slim.

We hear these same fairy stories about foreign nationals coming in and getting a council house ahead of others, the dole office buying cars for foreign nationals so that they can become taxi drivers. People just like to make things up most of the time

elperello

Life happens to people even if they are claiming the rental relief.

Elderly or sick relatives need minding,
Temporary job transfers come up,
Relationships develop,
Sporting commitments ie. team down the country training for big match

All of these might cause someone to be temporarily living away from their residence. As long as it is genuinely their address and they have a room in the house I can't see any problem.

Eric Cartman

Graham wrote: »

That's a rather odd position to take given the 'report welfare cheats' banner in your signature.

Not really, people deserve the money they earn , people don't deserve the money somebody else earns. Its pretty simple , both statements are about allowing people to keep their hard earned money.

Taxation is theft.

Simples.

Sleeper12

None of us want to pay tax but tax evasion & welfare fraud theft. Taxation pays for hospitals, schools and the state pension among hundreds of other things

Mrs Shuttleworth

Eric Cartman wrote: »

Not really, people deserve the money they earn , people don't deserve the money somebody else earns. Its pretty simple , both statements are about allowing people to keep their hard earned money.

Taxation is theft.

Simples.

The only conscionable taxes are VAT and stamp duty. Tax should be purely transaction based. All other taxes are theft as you say.

Sleeper12

Mrs Shuttleworth wrote:

The only conscionable taxes are VAT and stamp duty. Tax should be purely transaction based. All other taxes are theft as you say.

We tried that but people refused to pay for water

Pkiernan

Sleeper12 wrote: »

We tried that but people refused to pay for water

No, just dirtbags refused to pay for water!