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- 🏠 Abolishment of FHL tax allowances is being progressed
🏠 Abolishment of FHL tax allowances is being progressed
And different ways to measure occupancy levels
Phil Jackson
August 03, 2024
👋 Welcome to this weeks newsletter.
A shorter but still informative edition this week as we’re in mid-summer season; providing you a round-up of the latest news, tips and ℹ️ information to help you manage and 📈 grow your holiday let business.
See you next Saturday at 5pm?
Phil
Founder, My Holiday Guide
IN THE NEWS
The UK government has confirmed that it plans to abolish the tax advantages currently enjoyed by furnished holiday let landlords, aligning their tax treatment with standard residential property landlords, starting from April 2025.
Industry bodies such as PASC (Professional Association of Self-Caterers), STAA (Short-Term Accommodation Association) and ASSC (Association of Scotland's Self-Caterers) have all published initial responses whilst they continue to work with the government.
This is the full Abolition of FHL Allowances, and we believe it will do a huge amount of harm to the sector and is in no way aligned with the new Governments much vaunted growth agenda. The impact if it goes through as proposed on rural and coastal visitor economies will be huge.
Both the Scottish and UK Governments should be laser focused on a pro-small business, pro-growth agenda to help revitalise our economy. Unfortunately, the abolition of the current Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHLs) tax regime runs contrary to that objective and will damage a key part of our tourist economy which supports jobs and livelihoods in communities across the UK.
This is particularly unfortunate news for the sector in Scotland, as self-catering operators continue to be hammered by the costs associated with the Scottish Government’s onerous short-term let licensing and planning regulations and who will also face the introduction of a visitor levy. Scrapping FHL tax regime will make a bad situation much worse.
We would encourage all affected stakeholders to engage with HM Treasury’s consultation on FHLs, highlighting the negative impact this will have for small businesses.
The UK government has published draft legislation to abolish the Furnished Holiday Let tax regime.
HM Treasury has asked to meet with STAA CEO Andrew Fenner to discuss the impacts on the STR tourism industry.
The STAA will be fighting for our industry and pushing the government to support tourism and the thousands of small businesses across our sector.
STR tourism needs support, not yet more legislation.
We encourage STAA members to send in their thoughts and inputs on the issue. Andy will feedback this back to the Treasury.
Abolishing the Furnished Holiday Lets regime will only punish people who are helping to grow local economies. It is far from a tax loophole, providing a crucial support mechanism, strengthening the resilience and viability of many rural businesses that in turn enables them to invest in their work looking after the environment and feeding the nation.
On the 29th of July the Government also published a policy paper that provide some further details on the proposed tax changes. These are broadly in line with the overview the previous government had provided.
Statuary Registration Scheme
In last weeks newsletter we highlighted that the DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport) were seeking inputs from owners and landlords about the proposed registration scheme.
They have been overwhelmed by responses and have now asked for owners to hold off responding whilst they work out a different way for owners to provide input!
During an interview at the Paris Olympics, Airbnbs Chief Business Officer Dave Stephenson suggested that the platform is looking into how it can enable additional services to be offered to guests such as a personal chef, mid-week cleaning or improving ease of transportation and checking in.
It seems that whilst they have recently been cutting back on experiences offered through the platform, they are looking into ways of offering ‘in-property’ guest enhancements.
Airbnb is expected to reveal this new feature in early 2025.
LISTING PERFORMANCE & GROWTH
Tips and strategies to enhance the visibility and attractiveness of your holiday let.
Occupancy Metrics: How Are They Different And Which Should You Track?
Key Data have published a blog article that walks through the different types of occupancy metrics, and how you can use these to provide a view on both occupancy capacity and revenue.
The occupancy metrics covered are :
Paid Occupancy: Measures the percentage of nights occupied by paying guests
Paid and Owner Occupancy: Includes nights stayed by owners in addition to paying guests
Calendar Occupancy: Considers all nights, including those occupied by guests, owners, and those blocked for maintenance
Adjusted Paid Occupancy Rate: Focuses on the percentage of available nights booked by paying guests, excluding owner stays and hold nights
You can read the full article here.
FEATURED RESOURCE
Highlighting useful tools and resources for your holiday let.
land&water
Based in Cornwall and with the founders having a background in hospitality, land&water offer a range of natural bath & body products that are vegan friendly and cruelty free.
You can check out their range of products and refills here :
IN THE DIRECTORY
Holiday Let Accountants
With the likely abolition of FHL tax allowances; if you are considering engaging an accountant then we have a list of accountants who deal with holiday let properties within our resources directory.
SAVINGS
Here's a quick round up of discounts and deals we are aware of from providers to the holiday let industry.
Habitat have added items to their clearance sale with up to 25% off
Rinkit! have up to 70% off in their clearance sale
Emma sleep has up to 40% off in their sale, plus an extra 5% off using the code SUMMERSALE5
PROPERTIES OF THE NEWSLETTER
We all love looking at and getting inspiration from other properties so here’s our top pick for this edition.
NO FOMO
Missed last weeks newsletter? Here’s one thing you might like.
Key Data’s Summer Seasonal Report
In last weeks newsletter we provided an overview of Key Data’s summer report which looks at actual UK booking performance up to the end of June as-well as a view on performance for the next couple of months.
If you missed it you can check out our summery here :