What can you still offset against income for BTL tax purposes?

[d000hg]

I know we're part-way through the sliding scale of having certain things removed as offset-able expenses, but what CAN you still claim either fully or partly?

Our long-term tenant has clamoured for ages to have an ensuite reverted to a bedroom as they have an autistic (I think) child who needs their own room. It was a bedroom when we bought the place; we converted it as our ensuite before moving out 7-8 years ago.
We finally agreed and got the work done since they want to be there for the long term and finding good (or any) tenants in that area is tricky.

I have no idea if any of this can be offset - or even what it would be classed as. Anyone know? The cost of the work is approximately 2 months' rental income.

[l35kee]

Maintenance and repairs are tax deductible, but improvements are not.

So repainting is ok, but converting an en-suite to a room is likely to add value to the house so I wouldn't expect you can offset the cost.

[d000hg]

I'm not sure it's an improvement, a 4 bedroom house with one small downstairs bathroom But take your point.

I wondered if the argument that I had to do the work to keep the tenant holds any weight. Especially if there's any kind of disability angle - they were already using it as a bedroom for the baby, storing toys in the bath!

[northernladuk]

No way will a change of use like this be allowable IMO.

This page should help you. I bit of a read but will give you a good understanding for the future.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...manual/pim2020

That said it still doesn't help with everything. For example if you need to repair a kitchen cupboard but can't find a replacement door so decide to swap all the doors. Stuff like that.

Should answer your question though.

---------

An extra bedroom can easily be seen as an improvement as it could command more rent.

[craigy1874]

No way will a change of use like this be allowable IMO.

This page should help you. I bit of a read but will give you a good understanding for the future.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...manual/pim2020

That said it still doesn't help with everything. For example if you need to repair a kitchen cupboard but can't find a replacement door so decide to swap all the doors. Stuff like that.

Should answer your question though.

---------

An extra bedroom can easily be seen as an improvement as it could command more rent.

Agreed - improvement - add the expense to the cost of the property to be relieved against capital gains.