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Included mortgage repayments in tax return by mistake

Started by WendC, December 28, 2019, 05:19:39 PM

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WendC

I have just been working on this year's tax return and realised that I have mistakenly included the mortgage repayments as an expense since I started to rent the property, over 15 years ago. I feel sick about this. Has anyone else done this? I guess I have a huge tax bill coming my way.

Simon Pambin

Well, I've not done it personally but you're certainly not the first person to do it, and I doubt you'll be the last!

No point in fretting about it: just get this year's return filed correctly and find yourself a decent local accountant to hold your hand through the next bit. Remember that the interest element of your mortgage payments was allowable so it's just the capital element you need to consider.

As a rough rule of thumb, 15 years into a 25 year mortgage you'll have paid off about half of the original mortgage sum. It's still going to be a fairly chunky number but a good accountant might be able to whittle it down a bit and if you take the view that it was never really your money anyway, you're not actually losing anything. HMRC like a penitent sinner so, if you come clean, they're unlikely to start lobbing penalties at you for an honest mistake.