Following our campaign against the removal of the special tax reliefs for owners of Furnished Holiday Let (FHL) properties, the new Chancellor has confirmed that these businesses will not lose their reliefs, and may continue to be taxed under the well established FHL provisions for the year 2010/11.
The new Government has announced their intention to publish a public consultation over the summer, to review the following specific areas:
- Ensuring the FHL rules apply equally to properties in the EEA;
- An increase in the number of days that qualifying properties have to be available for (currently 140 days in the year), and actually let (currently 70 days); and
- A change in the way FHL loss relief is given (currently available for set-off against other income).
Any change on the above would then apply from April 2011.
When removal of the special reliefs was first proposed under the previous Government’s 2008 Budget, Bishop Fleming led a campaign to highlight the damage this would have on the South West economy. Selected documents from this campaign are available below: