The client had nine BTL properties of which only one was jointly owned with his wife. He had been declaring all his rental income throughout these years. Upon contacting Lanop, he was informed that he had been declaring full rental income even for his jointly owned property. In practice, the jointly owned property had to be declared by his wife as her share of rental income separately and the disclosure needed to be made through Let Property Campaign. Our tax experts were well aware of the fact that the client had actually paid more taxes as he had declared all rental income in higher tax bracket through his personal tax returns. The property was acquired in 1998 and as per our experience, it would have been nearly impossible to get a refund from HMRC for these many years. In view of the above, our tax adviser took a very prudent approach and wrote a letter to the relevant authorities explaining the whole situation while suggesting to file 21 years of disclosures if revenue promises not to charge any penalties and refunds extra taxes paid by our clients over these years. Thereafter, the Revenue negotiated a deal (spread over five months of correspondence and after lengthy exchanges of evidence) wherein the client’s wife had to make disclosures of only last three years while the client received his refunds for the last three years. The outcome was deemed satisfactory for both client and HMRC as now the client records were up to date with HMRC. Breathing a sigh of relief, the client complimented Lanop by saying: ”I was extremely disappointed with my ex accountants and was very scared of telling my wife that she could have broken the law by not filing her tax returns as I was always responsible for tax and financial side of the family while she looked after home and our kids. Lanop Accountants have been my best friend ever since. The deal with the whole situation and I could see that their senior partner Zaib dealt with my situation just like it was his own matter. It is easy to find an accountant, but it is very hard to find someone who will actually treat your situation with so much care”. It is appreciation like this which pushes Lanop to keep working tirelessly for its clients every day and night – no matter what the circumstances are.
