If you are an agent letting a property to a non-resident landlord, you need to see this announcement.

A new manual can be seen here, and says:

A letting agent is generally a person who:

• has a ‘usual place of abode’ in the UK, and
• acts for a non-resident landlord (NRL) in the running of their UK rental business, and
• has the power to receive income of the non-resident landlord’s rental business, or has control over the direction of that income.

A ‘letting agent’ for the purposes of the scheme does not need to be an estate agent or other property management business. A ‘letting agent’ could be a professional representative like an accountant or solicitor, or a private individual like a relative or friend; the letting agent is someone who acts for the non-resident landlord as above.

Letting agents’ obligations

Letting agents who have to operate the Non-resident Landlords Scheme must:

• register with HMRC
• account quarterly for any tax to HMRC
• complete an annual information return, where they are required to account for tax, provide their non-resident landlords with a certificate of tax liability each year, and
• keep sufficient records to show that they have complied with the requirements of the Scheme.

Letting agents have the right to deduct any tax they have to pay under the Scheme from their rent, or from any other money owing to the non-resident landlord. They also have the right to recover from the landlord any tax they have to pay under the Scheme where they did not deduct it from their rent or other money owing.

Before calculating the tax due the letting agent may deduct certain expenses, such as letting agent fees, cost of advertising for new tenants, gardening, etc. (See under the heading “Deductible expenses” in the online NRLS guidance, in the document: “What the non-resident landlord scheme is”).