The UK property page for unincorporated landlords

This article provides a summary of the UK property page of the Self Assessment tax return and the relevant information required to complete it, for an unincorporated landlord.

We are not authorised by HMRC to provide accounting or tax advice. Therefore, FreeAgent’s Support team cannot advise you on how to fill in your tax return correctly or check your figures to see if they are correct, unless they have been calculated by the software. If you’re unsure whether a figure on your tax return is right, please speak to your accountant or to HMRC.

Unsupported scenarios

Please note that if you need to include any of the following details on your tax return, you won’t be able to file your tax return using FreeAgent as they’re currently not supported:

• Property income and costs for non-UK properties, other than EEA FHLs
• Property income and costs for landlords not resident in the UK

UK property page

Property details

FreeAgent will automatically populate box 1 with the number of properties you rent out based on the number of properties you’ve added to FreeAgent. However, you can overwrite this number if you need to.

Select ‘Yes’ to any questions that apply to you, such as if your property income ceased during the tax year and you don’t expect to receive rental income in the following tax year, you receive income from properties let jointly and if you’re claiming Rent a Room relief. Otherwise, select ‘No’.

Furnished holiday lettings

UK furnished holiday lettings

If you rent out furnished holiday lettings (FHLs) in the UK, select ‘Yes’ to ‘Did you receive income from UK furnished holiday lettings?’ and manually enter the income and costs.

If any property qualified as a furnished holiday letting (FHL) property in the tax year 6th April 2021 to 5th April 2022 but did not qualify in the tax year 6th April 2022 to 5th April 2023, you may be able to make an election for a period of grace by selecting ‘Yes’ to box 19. If you’re unsure whether a property qualifies as a furnished holiday letting, please ask your accountant.

EEA furnished holiday lettings

If you rent out furnished holiday lettings (FHLs) in the EEA, select ‘Yes’ to ‘Did you receive income from EEA furnished holiday lettings?’ and manually enter the income and costs.

If any property qualified as a furnished holiday letting (FHL) property in the tax year 6th April 2021 to 5th April 2022 but did not qualify in the tax year 6th April 2022 to 5th April 2023, you may be able to make an election for a period of grace by selecting ‘Yes’ to box 19. If you’re unsure whether a property qualifies as a furnished holiday letting, please ask your accountant.

Property income

FreeAgent will populate box 20 from the property income that you’ve recorded. If you let out properties jointly, income will be apportioned according to the ownership arrangement that you’ve set up, which will be applied to all properties.

Please note that if you're a landlord not resident in the UK, you won’t be able to use FreeAgent to file your tax return as the SA109 form isn’t supported.

If your property rental business income includes premiums paid for the grant of a lease and other lump sum payments given in connection with the right to possession of a property, enter these in box 22. If you’re unsure how to calculate these, please ask your accountant or see HMRC's guidance.

Property expenses

FreeAgent will populate this page from the property costs that you’ve recorded. Please note that costs will be apportioned according to the ownership arrangement that will be applied to all properties.

See below for more details on which boxes on your tax return costs will be added to when you record costs in FreeAgent.

Calculating taxable profit or loss

Enter any remaining relevant reliefs and adjustments. If you’re unsure whether you're entitled to any reliefs or how much to enter, please ask your accountant.

Rent a Room Scheme

If you let out furnished accommodation in your home, the Rent a Room Scheme lets you earn up to a threshold of £7,500 per year tax-free (£3,750 if you share the income with a partner or someone else).

There are three different ways to treat Rent a Room income, depending on whether the amount of income you received during the tax year was below or above the threshold. If you’re unsure which option applies to you, please speak to your accountant.

If the income you received was below the threshold

If the income you received was below the threshold, select ‘Yes’ to box 4 in the ‘Property details’ section. You must ensure that boxes 20 (Income), and 24 to 29 (Expenses), do not include income and expense transactions related to the 'Rent a Room' property. If they do, you’ll need to edit the explanations of these transactions to ‘Capital Introduced’ for income and ‘Drawings’ for costs.

If the income you received was above the threshold

If the income you received was above the threshold, you can choose to pay tax on your actual profit or gross income above the threshold.

Paying tax on your actual profit

If you choose to pay tax on your actual profit (your total income minus any expenses and capital allowances), select ‘No’ to box 4 in the ‘Property details’ section as you’re not claiming relief. Enter the income and expenses in the relevant boxes on the form and do not complete box 37.

Paying tax on your gross income above the threshold

If you choose to pay tax on the income above the Rent a Room limit (your rental income minus the £7,500 or £3,750 threshold), select ‘No’ to box 4 in the ‘Property details’ section as your rental income is above the threshold.

Enter the exempt amount you’re claiming (£7,500, or £3,750 if let jointly) in box 37. If you are claiming the Property income allowance, you’ll also need to enter the total rental income qualifying for the Rent a Room Scheme below box 37 so that this income is excluded from the Property income allowance calculation.

You must ensure boxes 24 to 29 do not include expenses relating to the Rent a Room property. If they do, you’ll need to edit the explanations of these transactions to an appropriate disallowable expense category. You also cannot deduct any capital allowances relating to the Rent a Room property, as per HMRC guidelines.

UK property expense boxes

The table below outlines which box on your Self Assessment tax return that cost categories get allocated to when you record a property cost in FreeAgent.