Buy-to-let landlords paid a record £107m to HMRC in the 2024/25 tax year as part of a continued compliance crackdown, more than double the amount collected just three years earlier, according to new data obtained under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.
The figures, disclosed to accountancy firm Price Bailey, show that BTL landlords paid an average of £13,713 each in unpaid tax last year — the highest figure since HMRC’s Let Property Campaign (LPC) began in 2013. This marks a sharp increase from the £9,505 average recovered per disclosure the previous year.
While the total collected in 2024/25 was roughly in line with 2023/24, it represents a significant jump from the £65.4 million recovered in 2022/23.
Since the LPC’s launch, HMRC has recovered approximately £570 million from UK residential landlords who failed to declare rental income.
The Let Property Campaign is targeted at individuals who have underpaid tax on income from residential lettings, both in the UK and overseas. It allows landlords to voluntarily disclose unpaid taxes before HMRC takes enforcement action.
Those eligible to make disclosures include landlords renting out:
Single or multiple residential properties
A room in their main home above the Rent a Room Scheme threshold
Furnished holiday lets
Properties while living abroad or planning to live abroad for more than six months
Inherited properties
Andrew Park, tax investigations partner at Price Bailey, said: “We’ve assisted large numbers of landlords in making voluntary disclosures over the last few years – typically, after they’ve received an HMRC nudge letter.”
According to the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, there were about 2.2 million UK private landlords in the first quarter of 2024.
“They [landlords] are often accidental landlords who kept a property after moving to cohabit with a new partner, inherited a property or temporarily moved abroad. Many are not financially sophisticated or in receipt of high levels of other income, haven’t properly understood their responsibilities and haven’t previously sought advice,” Park said.
“There is a widespread confusion about the different tax treatment of capital expenditure and revenue expenditure,” he added.
Read the orginal article: https://propertyindustryeye.com/hmrc-hits-landlords-with-record-107m-in-unpaid-taxes/
