Second home owners could save £150m from tax break

SECOND home owners could save £150m this year by using a tax loophole, analysis shows.

Registering holiday homes for business rates rather than council tax means tens of thousands of second home owners will pay no tax to local authorities, said Colliers, a real estate company.

Property owners who make rentals available as short-term lets for 140 days a year can claim they are a small business, and therefore pay business rates instead of council tax.

They can then claim 100pc tax relief if the property has a rateable business value of less than £12,000. Those with rateable values of £12,000 to £15,000 can claim relief on a sliding scale.

The Government has taken steps to close the loophole and from next April a property can only qualify for business rates if it is made available for 140 days a year, and let out for short periods totalling at least 70 days.

But even under these rules, a second home owner who let out their property for 10 weeks of the year would still be able to pay no tax.

As the pandemic staycation boom has brought a surge in holiday let investment, the number of properties that no longer pay council tax has soared.

Across England and Wales, there are 79,150 holiday let properties that qualify for 100pc business rates relief, meaning the owners pay no business rates or council tax.

This is equivalent to an annual loss of £150m in missing council tax payments, a jump of 36pc compared to a year ago.

John Webber, of Colliers, warned that the Government’s plans to grant local authorities discretionary powers to charge double council tax on empty homes, outlined in the Queen’s Speech earlier this month, would backfire.

“This measure is supposed to create extra funding that could be used to help local services and ensure council tax is kept low for local residents. In reality, it will mean more second home owners will have an incentive to flip these second homes into ‘businesses’,” he said.

Agents selling properties in holiday home hotspots advertise the advantages of switching to the business rates system, Mr Webber added. “This has probably contributed to the further rise in house prices,” he said. In the past four years, property prices in Cornwall have jumped by 49pc.

“We don’t blame the home owners that take advantage of this tax break. We do blame the Government for overseeing this mess which leads to friction in many coastal resorts,” said Mr Webber.

A government spokesman said: “This analysis in no way reflects real changes in councils’ income, as councils are compensated for loss of business rates through the local government finance system.”