I earned £970 from Airbnb between April 2017 and April 2018. I have had extra expenses that I have paid (i.e. for food, electricity, water, internet and bed linen). I also work part-time one day a week (i.e. 8 hours a week) at Waterstones bookshop (my salary is £3,180 per annum) and I have a pension which amounts to about £12,960 per annum (I pay tax on this). Do I need to fill out a tax return?

Arthur Weller replies:
If you look at HMRC’s Property Income manual at www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/property-incomemanual/pim4400, you can see that there is a property allowance. Where the total receipts from all property businesses in the tax year are no more than £1,000, the allowance is given automatically in full, so that no tax is payable, and the income does not have to be declared