Lay My Hat

Hi, I am looking at the best method to take payments of clients, and would like to know what others do i.e. do you set up a limited company and use your limited company to take payments or act as a sole trader or just submit end of year accounts as an individual?

Hello holidayrentallondon,

I wouldn't set up a company because:
Payments by guests would be to the company name and that gives an impression to the guests that they are dealing with a company rather than a human. That's a bad thing in my opinion, because they are likely to treat the property less well if they think that it is owned by a faceless property company.

It also may put them off booking because most guests are appreciative of the idea that they will be staying in someone's individual cherished holiday home which is up to the standards that the owner would insist on for his/her holidays.

As far as tax is concerned, if you fill in an annual tax return, there's a section for furnished letting and you only need to give summary information if your profit on it is less than a certain figure (from memory 15K per year). If you don't already fill in a tax return, you'll have to notify your tax office that you now have a furnished holiday let.