The deadline landlords meet by accident

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Property has its own rules

Landlords are taxed under rules that have drifted a long way from general self-assessment, and the sixty-day reporting requirement on residential disposals is the one that produces the most penalties. It runs from completion, it is separate from the annual return, and nobody writes to remind you.

The finance cost restriction is the quieter problem. Mortgage interest is no longer deductible from rental profit for individuals; it is a basic rate reduction applied afterwards. Returns prepared on the old basis look plausible, understate the tax and invite an enquiry years later.

And incorporation is the advice most often given and least often tested. Moving a portfolio into a company triggers stamp duty on the transfer and capital gains on the disposal, and usually a refinance at worse rates. Running those numbers properly means telling a fair number of landlords to do nothing — which is the useful answer rather than the profitable one.