At the beginning of April this year, HMRC published a document (called 'Revenue and Customs Brief 5/2013'), which contained 'draft revised guidance' on repairs and their treatment for income tax. How does this legislation affect landlords? What can landlords do to minimise the impact of the withdrawal of this relief?

See an excellent article on this subject by James Bailey in the May 2013 edition of Property Tax Insider. For expenditure incurred after 5 Apr 2013 (1 April for companies) landlords can no longer claim the renewals allowance in order to get capital allowance tax relief for expenditure on plant and machinery in a residential property (e.g. for free standing white goods, furniture, carpets etc). To minimise the impact of this withdrawal, landlords should consider: (a) going fully furnished and claiming the 10% wear and tear allowance; or alternatively (b) going fully unfurnished, and not bothering to spend money on something they can't get any tax relief for.