UK Landlord Forum / Life

HMRC are as clear as mud on this,

Say I buy a property in December and put a new kitchen and bathroom in to make it habitable

Can I claim it against the rental income for the following tax year, April year?

I appreciate your thoughts ?

If it's a new kitchen and/or bathroom, that would be a capital item and not claimable against revenue (but it is, currently, allowable against Capital Gains Tax when you sell the property).
If it's a replacement kitchen and/or bathroom it's likely to be claimable against revenue.
If it's a very significant upgrade it's likely to be both and claimable accordingly.

If this is the first time you're letting a property, the expenditure is deemed to have occurred on the first day of the first tenancy.

What's the different between replacement and new is it a rather grey area?

A replacement is a new version of what was there before. So where there was a toilet and shower, there's now a different (probably newer) toilet and shower. A new bathroom would be a new room entirely or another room converted to a bathroom.
A grey area is where a standard toilet and bath are replaced with a golden throne and wet room/sauna.

Almost all tax is a grey area.