Property tax advice from specialist advisors
Whether you are deciding how to own a property, when to sell it or whether to incorporate, a free consultation scopes the question, quotes a fixed fee, and tells you if you do not need us.
The premise
Advice, not another set of accounts
Most property tax is lost at the point of a decision, not at the point of filing. By the time a return is prepared the choice is already made, and the return simply reports what it cost.
- Whose name the property is bought inIncome taxed at the wrong rate for as long as you hold it
- Which tax year the sale completes inA gain landing in the wrong year, with an allowance wasted
- Whether fixtures are valued on a commercial purchaseAllowances lost, with the election window already closed
- How a portfolio is structured to pass onAn inheritance tax bill nobody costed while there was time
This is a consultation service for that earlier moment. You bring a specific decision, we model it against your real figures, and you get written advice with the options costed and a clear recommendation. It is a defined piece of work with a fixed fee, not a retainer.
If what you actually need is someone to run the annual return, the rental schedules, the company accounts and the quarterly Making Tax Digital submissions, that is a different service and it lives on our property accountant page. Plenty of people use both. Plenty use only one.
Triggers
When a consultation is worth booking
Most consultations start from one of six situations. Each of them is a decision with a deadline attached, and each is far cheaper to get right before it happens than to unpick afterwards.
If one of these is sitting on your desk, that is the moment a consultation pays for itself.
Book a consultationScope
What the advice covers
Six areas account for most of what landlords and investors ask us. A consultation can cover one of them or several, depending on the decision in front of you.
Structuring and ownership
Whether a property should sit personally, jointly, in a limited company, in a family investment company or under a declaration of trust. The answer moves with your marginal rate, your spouse's rate, your borrowing, and what you plan to do with the property in ten years. We model the options against your actual numbers rather than the general case.
The ownership structure that fits your numbers, and what moving to it would cost.
Capital gains tax timing and reliefs
When to sell, what order to sell in, how to use main residence relief and private residence elections properly, whether a loss can be crystallised in the same tax year, and how the 60-day reporting deadline changes your cash planning. Timing a disposal across two tax years is often worth more than any single relief.
A disposal order and timetable built around the reliefs you can actually claim.
Section 24 mitigation
The finance cost reducer is 20% now and rises to 22% from April 2027, in step with the new property income rates of 22%, 42% and 47%, so the wedge for a higher-rate landlord stays 20 points. Advice here covers what actually reduces your exposure: pension contributions, spouse allocation, deductible expense discipline, refinancing decisions, and whether incorporation is proportionate to the saving.
The mitigations that are proportionate to your exposure, and the ones that are not.
Capital allowances on commercial and mixed property
Embedded plant and machinery in commercial buildings, furnished holiday let history, and fixtures elections on purchase. Writing down allowances fall from 18% to 14%, a new 40% first year allowance applies, and the special rate pool stays at 6%. Most buyers of commercial property never claim what they are entitled to.
The allowances your purchase qualifies for, and the elections needed to claim them.
Inheritance tax and portfolio succession
Rental property is investment property, so business relief rarely applies. Thresholds are frozen to 5 April 2031, and the combined 100% business and agricultural relief allowance is capped at £2.5m from April 2026. Advice covers gifting sequences, the seven year clock, freezer share structures and what your executors will face.
A gifting and succession sequence, and a clear view of what your executors face.
Non-resident and cross-border positions
Living abroad while letting UK property, the non-resident landlord scheme, non-resident CGT reporting, treaty relief, and how a return to the UK changes your position. Getting the residence and reporting sequence wrong keeps HMRC's discovery window open for years.
The residence and reporting sequence for your position, in the order HMRC expects.
The engagement
How an engagement works
- 01
Scoping call
A short conversation about the decision you are facing, the properties involved and your wider tax position. We tell you whether the question needs a consultation at all, and if it does not, we say so.
- 02
Fixed scope and fee
You get the question written down, the work required to answer it, the fee, and the turnaround before anything starts. No hourly billing and no open-ended engagement.
- 03
Analysis and modelling
We work through your figures, model the realistic options, and stress test them against the rules as they stand and as they are legislated to change. Where the answer depends on an assumption, we show you the assumption.
- 04
Written advice and a follow-up call
You receive a written note setting out the position, the options with numbers attached, the recommendation and the risks. A call follows so you can push back on it. The note is yours to share with your solicitor, broker or existing accountant.
- 05
Implementation, only if you want it
Some clients take the advice and act on it themselves. Others ask us to run the elections, filings and coordination. Both are fine. The consultation does not commit you to anything ongoing.
Deliverables
What you get from a consultation
- A written note setting out your position and the options, with numbers attached to each
- A clear recommendation, including a recommendation to do nothing where that is the right answer
- The assumptions and the risks stated openly, so you can see what the answer depends on
- Deadlines and elections identified, with the dates you have to hit
- A follow-up call to challenge the advice before you act on it
- A document you can hand to your solicitor, broker or existing accountant to implement
No charge, and no obligation to go further.
The difference
Why a property tax specialist rather than a general adviser
A good general practice adviser handles a wide range of clients competently. Property is where breadth stops paying. The reliefs are narrow, the elections have deadlines, and the rules have changed repeatedly since 2016. The difference shows up in what gets noticed.
Every client of this practice is a landlord, investor or property business. That is the whole reason the specialist side below is routine rather than exceptional.
| Area | A general adviserCompetent across many sectors | Most recommendedProperty Tax PartnersA property tax specialist like us |
|---|---|---|
| Rental income | Treats it as a schedule on a tax return | Treats each property as a position with an acquisition history, a base cost, a relief profile and an exit plan |
| Finance costs | Applies the reducer and moves on | Models whether the reducer, spouse allocation, pension relief or a change of structure produces the better outcome over the holding period |
| Commercial purchases | Records the purchase at the price paid | Looks for embedded fixtures, checks the section 198 election on purchase and quantifies the allowances before the opportunity is lost |
| Disposals | Reports a disposal after it happens | Plans the disposal year, the ownership split and the reporting deadline before contracts are exchanged |
| Inheritance tax | Notes that it may be an issue | Values the portfolio against the frozen thresholds, tests the gifting sequence and shows what the estate pays under each option |
| Book a consultation No charge, and no obligation to go further. |
Rental income
A general adviser: Treats it as a schedule on a tax returnUs: Treats each property as a position with an acquisition history, a base cost, a relief profile and an exit planFinance costs
A general adviser: Applies the reducer and moves onUs: Models whether the reducer, spouse allocation, pension relief or a change of structure produces the better outcome over the holding periodCommercial purchases
A general adviser: Records the purchase at the price paidUs: Looks for embedded fixtures, checks the section 198 election on purchase and quantifies the allowances before the opportunity is lostDisposals
A general adviser: Reports a disposal after it happensUs: Plans the disposal year, the ownership split and the reporting deadline before contracts are exchangedInheritance tax
A general adviser: Notes that it may be an issueUs: Values the portfolio against the frozen thresholds, tests the gifting sequence and shows what the estate pays under each option
No charge, and no obligation to go further.
Moving parts
The rules your advice has to work around in 2026/27
Several changes legislated in Finance Act 2026 land within the next two years. Advice given against the old position is worse than no advice, because it is confidently wrong.
Our property tax rates reference carries the full set of thresholds if you want the detail before a call.
| Change | Position | From |
|---|---|---|
| Rates on property income | Separate rates of 22%, 42% and 47% replace 20%, 40% and 45% in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland is not affected for 2027/28 | 6 April 2027 |
| Section 24 finance cost reducer | Rises from 20% to 22%, tracking the new property basic rate, so the higher-rate wedge stays 20 points | April 2027 |
| Making Tax Digital for landlords | Qualifying income over £50,000 from April 2026, over £30,000 from April 2027, over £20,000 from April 2028 | April 2026 |
| Writing down allowances | Main pool falls from 18% to 14%, a new 40% first year allowance applies, special rate pool stays at 6% | 2026/27 |
| Dividend rates | 10.75%, 35.75% and 39.35% | 6 April 2026 |
| Business asset disposal relief | Rate of 18% | 6 April 2026 |
| Inheritance tax thresholds | Frozen, with the combined business and agricultural relief allowance capped at £2.5m | To 5 April 2031 |
| Employer national insurance | 15% with a £5,000 secondary threshold, relevant to company structures with staff | Current |
Note: Example figures displayed
Background reading before you book
These go deeper on the questions that come up most often in consultations.
Testimonials
What landlords say
Anonymised feedback from landlords and investors we have advised.
“They modelled our Section 24 position properly for the first time and showed us exactly where incorporation did and did not make sense. No hard sell, just the numbers.”
“We were weeks from missing the 60-day capital gains deadline on a sale. They turned the computation around and filed on time. Worth the fee on that alone.”
“Getting ready for Making Tax Digital felt overwhelming. They set up the software, mapped every property, and now the quarterly filing just happens.”
Free tools
Run the numbers yourself first
Several of the questions people book a consultation for can be sized in a few minutes. If a calculator shows the effect is small, you may not need advice at all, and we would rather you found that out for free.
For the incorporation decision specifically, our buy-to-let incorporation analysis sets out the full feasibility assessment, and our landlord tax guide covers the annual position most consultations start from.
Free consultation
Get specialist property tax advice on the decision in front of you
Tell us the decision you are weighing up. We will scope the question, quote a fixed fee, and tell you up front if you do not need us.
- One-off advice welcomeNo need to move your accounts to us
- Fixed fees, quoted upfrontYou approve the fee before any work starts
- 24-hour responseUsually the same working day
No obligation and no hard sell. If the answer is simple, we will just tell you.
Book your free consultation
FAQ