Furnished Holiday Lettings – How Can My Property Qualify?

20/08/2022 - 11 minutes read

Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs) are subject to special tax rules for rental income.

If you let properties that qualify as Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs):

  • – you can claim Capital Gains Tax reliefs for traders (Business Asset Rollover Relief, Entrepreneurs’ Relief, relief for gifts of business assets and relief for loans to traders)
  • – you’re entitled to plant and machinery capital allowances for items such as furniture, equipment and fixtures
  • – the profits count as earnings for pension purposes

To benefit from these rules, you need to work out the profit or loss from your FHLs separately from any other rental business.

Furnished Holiday Lettings - How Can My Property Qualify?

Furnished Holiday Lettings – How Can My Property Qualify?

Accommodation that qualifies as Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs)

To qualify as a Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs) your property must be:

  • – in the UK or in the European Economic Area (EEA) – the EEA includes Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway
  • – furnished – there must be sufficient furniture provided for normal occupation and your visitors must be entitled to use the furniture

The property must be commercially let (you must intend to make a profit). If you let the property out of season to cover costs but did not make a profit, the letting will still be treated as commercial.

All your FHLs in the UK are taxed as a single UK FHL business and all FHLs in other EEA states are taxed as a single EEA FHL business. You will need to keep separate records for each FHL business because the losses from one FHL business cannot be used against the profits of the other.

Occupancy conditions for Furnished Holiday Lettings

Accommodation can only qualify as Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs) if it passes all 3 occupancy conditions.

How to use the occupancy conditions

For a continuing let, apply the tests to the tax year – that’s from 6 April one year to 5 April the next.

For a new let, apply the tests to the first 12 months from when the letting began.

When your letting stops, apply the tests to the 12 months up to when the letting finished.

The pattern of occupation condition

If the total of all lettings that exceed 31 continuous days is more than 155 days during the year, this condition is not met so your property will not be an FHL for that year.

The availability condition

Your property must be available for letting as furnished holiday accommodation letting for at least 210 days in the year (140 days for the tax year 2011 to 2012 and earlier).

Do not count any days when you’re staying in the property. HMRC does not consider the property to be available for letting while you’re staying there.

The letting condition

You must let the property commercially as furnished holiday accommodation to the public for at least 105 days in the year (70 days for the tax year 2011 to 2012 and earlier).

Do not count any days when you let the property to friends or relatives at zero or reduced rates as this is not a commercial let.

Do not count longer-term lets of more than 31 days, unless the 31 days is exceeded because something unforeseen happens. For example, if the holidaymaker either:

  • – falls ill or has an accident, and cannot leave on time
  • – has to extend their holiday due to a delayed flight

If you do not let your property for at least 105 days, you have 2 options (known as elections) that can help you reach the occupancy threshold:

  • – the averaging election – if you’ve more than one property
  • – a period of grace election – if your property reaches the occupancy threshold in some years but not in others

Averaging election for Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs)

If you let more than one property as an FHL, and one or more of these properties does not meet the letting condition of 105 days, you can elect to apply the letting condition to the average rate of occupancy for all the properties you let as FHLs. This is called an averaging election.

Time limit

You make an averaging election up to one year after 31 January following the end of the tax year. For example, if you’re filling in your tax return for 2019 to 2020, you must make your election by 31 January 2022.

Period of grace election for Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs)

You may genuinely intend to meet the letting condition but were unable to. If this happens, you may be able to make a period of grace election that allows the property to qualify as an FHL as long as the pattern of occupation and availability conditions were met.

To make an election, you must be able to show that you had a genuine intention to let the property in the year. For example, where you have marketed a property to the same or a greater level than in successful years, or where the lettings are cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, including extremely adverse weather.

You can make an election where the property met the letting condition in the year before the first year you wish to make a period of grace election (either on its own or because of an averaging election). If your property again does not meet the letting condition in the following year, you can make a second period of grace election (as long as you made an election in the previous year).

If your property does not reach the threshold by the fourth year, after 2 consecutive periods of grace elections, it will no longer qualify as a furnished holiday letting.

How to make an election

You can either:

  • – use your Self Assessment ‘UK Property’ pages
  • – make it separately, up to one year after 31 January following the end of the tax year – for example, if you’re filling in your tax return for 2019 to 2020 you must make your election by 31 January 2022

Using both averaging and period of grace for Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs)

If you have more than one property, you can use both averaging and period of grace elections to make sure that a property continues to qualify as an FHL.

Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs) Property closed for part of the year or only part of the property let

If your property is only used as an FHL and is closed for part of the year because there are no customers, you can deduct all the expenses, such as insurance and loan interest, for the whole year, provided you do not live in the property.

If you let part of the property as an FHL, or where you use the property privately for part of the year, you need to apportion your receipts and expenses on a reasonable basis.

Property stops being a Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs)

Your property will no longer be a Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs) if the:

  • – property is:
    • – sold
    • – used for private occupation
  • – letting condition is not met even with the averaging and period of grace elections

If your property does not qualify as an FHL or stops being a qualifying FHL, the special tax treatment will no longer apply. You will need to work out any balancing allowance or balancing charge for capital allowances, read Helpsheet 252 Capital allowances and balancing charges and any Capital Gains Tax reliefs will be affected, read:

What you can do with losses from Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs)

If your UK FHL business makes a loss, you can set the loss against your UK FHL profits of later years. Similarly, if your EEA FHL business makes a loss, you can set the loss against your EEA FHL profits of later years. You cannot set the losses of one FHL business against the profits of the other if you have a UK and an EEA business.

How can MCL Accountants help?

Contact MCL Accountants on 01702 593 029 if you have any queries regarding tax rules for Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs) or if you need any assistance with the preparation and submission of your business accounts or self-assessment tax returns to HMRC.