Renting out

When we first bought in spain I asked the lawyer about renting it out. He said don't worry about tax for just a single property but if you have more then best to declare earnings. That was around 2004. As it is we now have the opportunity to rent once or twice a year not actually covering costs but all helps.

Should we then pay for someone to do our tax return and probably loose any profit we may make on expenses. Perhaps it's a question of how many times the property can be rented to make it worthwhile (or something)?

PS we have heard about the authorities targeting renters who blatently avoid taxes. This is not our aim.

Advice, pointer appreciated.

You need to declare the income in either the UK or Spain. technically, you need to declare the income in both places since as a UK citizen you will be taxed on your world wide income. however, due to dual taxation treaty you will only have to pay tax once, so you could conceivably end up with a credit against your uk tax if you pay the tax in spain.

you might actually find that when you deduce the legitimate expenses associated with renting the property that the "net profit" is zero. therefore you wouldn't end up paying any tax on that rent.

either way you should be declaring the revenue somewhere--it's up to you if you want to take the risk.

Maybe try contacting one of our members here, FibbyUK.  She sorts out all her own taxes and may be able to advise you the cheapest way to do this.

Justin