selfemployed and lanlord

[lurcherzip]

hi can anyone advise me please. i am a self employed painter/decorator and also a landlord. Can i do repairs , painting and decorating to my rented property by putting in an invoice from myself. i am short of work at the minute so this would help me .

[King_Maker]

The short answer is No.

But you can claim for materials.

[lurcherzip]

that sounds so stupid to me. as i said i am a painter and decorator and my property needs pinting and decorating but because i am self employed i cannot work on the properties i own. thanks kinm_maker for your reply, by the way i am not getting on at you personally, but this seems ludicrous to me. as a way round then so if i ask my wife or a friend to do this job (which i do for a living) they can do it and put an invoice in but i cannot?

[Steve'n'Dmnd]

I'm confused as to what the problem is here. If you wish to give yourself money from the rent then simply take it as it is yours. Why would you want to transfer it to yourself by means of an invoice ? Perhaps I'm missing something ?

[Gordon999]

Suppose you were completing your tax return, you could declare your income arising from Self-employed Painter as 10K and from Property rental profit as 10K. Total income = 20K

If you charged yourself for decorating your own property say 5K , then you would be declaring income arising from self-employed painter as 15K and income from property rental profit as 5K . Total income = 20K .

So the tax Office doesn't allow you to charge yourself.

[Steve'n'Dmnd]

So its a strange problem to worry about because the income whether through an invoice (not allowed) or as rental income (allowed) is taxed the same. Thus the OP should decorate his house himself and instead of invoicing himself for the work simply takes the money as rental income. Remembering to claim the materials as cost.

[Phlash]

The commercial considerations for the transaction you are proposing make no sense. You in fact make less money from such a proposal as your painter decorator income will need National Insurance paying on it. So you pay yourself £100, and pay NI and income tax, so 29% tax. You have £71 left.

If you left the £100 in the lettings business and did not pay yourself to do the work you would pay 20% income tax on your rental profit. So you would have £80.

In one scenario you can transfer £71 to your personal account and in the other you can transfer £80.

Hope you haven't registered your self employed business for VAT under the Flat Rate Scheme?

If you do approach the VAT limits, think very carefully... And get the right advice otherwise you may end up having to pay over to HMRC VAT on your rental income too...

[Claymore]

If the painter and decorator has a ltd company - I can think of one scenario why his method of invoicing for the work could benefit him.