Property Tax Accountants for Landlords and Property Investors
UK property tax rarely stays still for long. Mortgage interest relief was restricted under Section 24, gains on a sale must be reported and paid within 60 days of completion, and the Renters' Rights Act is reshaping how rental income lands across the tax year.
Get any of it wrong, or simply not keep pace, and a profitable portfolio can start generating unplanned tax bills and penalties on top of the tax itself. The Finance Equation Ltd is an award-winning, ACCA-regulated firm of chartered certified accountants specialising in property tax across London, helping buy-to-let landlords, developers and investment companies structure their portfolios to keep more of what they earn.
It's one part of our wider taxation services, alongside company taxation, personal tax, tax planning and tax investigations support — and, for landlords holding property through a company, it connects directly with our company taxation service.
Personally held, incorporated, or somewhere in between — we work out which structure actually fits your circumstances.
Built For Property Investors, Not Generalists
What unites our clients is a tax position too specific, and too costly to get wrong, for a general practice accountant who handles property as a side-line.
From one unit to a substantial portfolio
Buy-to-let landlords with a handful of units, or a portfolio built up over years, structured and financed differently at each stage.
Multiple projects at once
Property developers managing several projects simultaneously, each with its own VAT and tax profile.
Incorporated and growing
Investment companies and real estate SPVs planning the next stage of a portfolio — expansion, incorporation or eventual sale — with corporation tax to plan around too.
Every recommendation we make is built around your particular circumstances — how your portfolio is structured, financed and held — not a generic template. We work with everything from a single rental property picked up as a pension alternative to portfolios spanning dozens of units held across several companies.
Three Changes Reshaping Landlord Tax Right Now
Property tax rarely stands still, and three changes in particular are catching landlords out at the moment.
Section 24 and mortgage interest relief
Since mortgage interest relief was restricted under Section 24 (still widely known by its original name, Clause 24), landlords who hold property personally can no longer deduct mortgage interest from rental income before calculating tax — they instead receive a basic-rate tax credit, regardless of what rate of tax they actually pay. For higher and additional-rate taxpayers with significant borrowing, that shift can mean a materially higher tax bill on the same rental profit, and in some cases pushes total income into a higher tax bracket entirely.
We start by working through the consequences of Section 24 on your particular circumstances — your borrowing, your income, your long-term plans for the portfolio — and then recommend the structure that actually fits: staying personally owned with careful planning, incorporating into a limited company, or a partnership route into incorporation. There's no single right answer for every landlord, which is exactly why generic advice so often gets this wrong.
How the credit changes the picture
Even though very little of that £40,000 actually reaches the landlord's pocket — because the deduction is now a basic-rate credit, not an expense taken off income before tax.
The 60-Day CGT Deadline and the Renters' Rights Act
60 days from completion
Not the following JanuarySell a residential property with a taxable gain, and the return must be filed and the tax paid within 60 days of completion — you may have to pay interest and a penalty if you don't report and pay on time. We calculate and file within the window as a matter of course.
PRS Database & Ombudsman
- Up to £7,000first breach
- Up to £40,000or criminal prosecution, repeated
Every landlord with an assured tenancy must join the Private Rented Sector Database and Ombudsman scheme. These penalties can never be deducted against rental income, unlike the ordinary running costs of letting a property.
Beyond the changes to tenancy law, the Renters' Rights Act affects tax and cash flow planning directly too: landlords can no longer request rent before a tenancy begins, and are limited to one month's rent once it's signed — removing the ability to collect six or twelve months upfront, which changes how rental income lands across the tax year and removes a cash flow buffer many landlords relied on.
Property Tax Advisory Services
Our property tax service covers everything a landlord or investment company needs in one place, so your tax position, your accounts and your compliance are never handled by three different suppliers who don't talk to each other — and if HMRC does open an enquiry, including under a campaign specifically aimed at landlords, we correspond with them directly on your behalf.
Personal tax return preparation and planning
Built around your property income and structured to make full use of the reliefs available to you.
Annual account preparation and analysis
So you understand not just what happened but why, and what it means for next year.
Bookkeeping with current financial information
Keeping your records accurate and up to date on our cloud accounting platforms, rather than reconstructed under pressure at year-end.
VAT return preparation and relief opportunities
Including savings on qualifying development costs.
Limited company formation advice
For landlords considering incorporation as a response to Section 24, or as part of wider portfolio planning.
Corporation tax computation and planning
For portfolios already held through a company structure, calculated accurately and filed on time.
Specialised portfolio strategies for investors
Tailored to how you hold, finance and plan to grow or exit your properties — often alongside our Fractional AI CFO service as a portfolio scales.
Expansion, incorporation or exit — planned in advance, not decided under pressure once the options have narrowed.
Specialist Areas That Matter As Your Portfolio Grows
Beyond day-to-day compliance, three areas consistently make the biggest difference to what property investors actually keep.
Developers can miss out on VAT relief on qualifying development costs — worth identifying before a project starts, not after the invoices are paid.
Once a portfolio exceeds roughly this value, inheritance tax planning stops being optional.
We plan disposals in advance — once completion happens, there's no time left to explore reliefs you haven't already considered.
We help investors structure their holdings so the portfolio they've built passes on efficiently, rather than triggering a tax bill that forces a sale — and plan property sales before completion, not after, because a genuine gain unnecessarily given away is rarely recoverable once the 60-day window has started.
Why Property Investors Choose Finance Equation
We're an award-winning, ACCA-regulated firm of chartered certified accountants, and property tax isn't an add-on to a general practice — it's a core specialism, built around buy-to-let landlords, developers, investment companies and SPVs across London. That focus means the advice you get reflects current legislation and real transactions, not a generic checklist.
Our aim, in the words we use with every client, is to help you maximise your wealth by being as tax efficient as possible — legally, sustainably, and with a structure that still makes sense five and ten years from now, not just at the next tax return.