Couple of property (tax) questions

No. You nominate your PPR based upon your own personal choice. As long as the property is "available for your own use" for 365 days of the year it can be your PPR even if you only visit if for one day (or even, not at all).

Your principle residence for CT purposes will be decided upon which one is, in fact, your principle place of residence, which would normally be the one that you spend the majority of your time, though other factors such as where you keep your personal belongings, are registered to vote, have personal post sent to etc, will be taken into account in marginal cases.

In the first instance you nominate your choice of first home for CT purposes yourself, but councils are at liberty to challenge this nomination if they think otherwise (quite how they might find out your lifestyle is anyone's guess).

No, no and no.

If you have a rental business which currently has no borrowings and you want to use the property in the business as equity for a loan (which I think is what you are asking), whether the interest is deductable for tax (against rental income) depends upon the use that you put that money to, not the item that it is secured on.

So if you borrow money against the rental properties to pay for a round- the-world-cruise then you cannot set the interest off against the rental income even if the loan is secured on the rental property.

OTOH, if you borrow some money to buy a new properly to add to the business, the interest on that loan is deductable against the rental income, regardless of how the loan is secured.

Of course they are a lot of grey areas here and there are (no doubt) many people who do (1) and get away with it, but that doesn't' make it legally the right answer

tim

IIRC it is now well-established that the original capital can be withdrawn from a business (including a property business). Again IIRC, it is covered in HMRC's BIM, with examples (I CBA'd to look to check!), which is what I assume the OP has found.

Sorry, I think that is exactly what can be done provided the borrowing does not exceed the capital introduced into the business. In other words, and oversimplifying dangerously, you cannot get relief for more than you put into the business in cash or kind.

I *think* the loan has to be secured against the property in the business, else the balance sheet of the business just don't work.

Might be worth asking/cross-posting to uk.business.accountancy. Or put into the search engine of your choice "withdrawing capital from a property business".

Thank you to both of you for your answers. I agree with the above that capital can be withdrawn. I can accept that the loan might have to be secured on the property but I don't really see why it has to be other than, perhaps, "because it does."

It also seems slightly perverse that a BTL loan would be deductible. So if I pay money to a bank to setup such a loan and then pay less tax (because the interest rate will be higher) then it's OK. I shall have to do the sums to see if it's actually worth it in my case.

I shall probably try calling the tax office to see what they say and if I get any definitive answers I'll post back here but it won't be for a week or two.

Tim.

Coming back to it, I don't think the loan has to be secured on the rental property (or at all). Working capital for many businesses is in the form of an overdraft secured on houses which are in no way business assets. But HMRC may not agree ;) So I'd recommend you maintain an explicit balance sheet & capital account.

I'd say there's not much chance you will get the "definitive" answer over the phone: the tax office staff only have access to the guidance in the BIM and PIM which you can read online. So if you get the answer you want I urge you to note the date and name of the person you spoke to and write to them to record it. If it's not the answer you want then you could write and ask them to refer it to head office

Tim is right. It may be possible by moving money around to get tax relief and still have a round the world cruise but you have to use the money in the business to get tax relief on the interest. You don't need to have any loan secured on the assets.

I had thought it was now a routine arrangement following the publicity given to HMRC's guidance, published some years ago now, on the way it viewed withdrawal of capital. Indeed, in example 1 in BIM45700[1] Ms D could for all we know be withdrawing capital to pay for a RTW cruise. That doesn't stop her getting relief for the interest on the loan taken out to provide the replacement working capital. That and similar arrangements are indeed "moving money around". But they are also ISTM just what Tim Woodall was proposing to do.