Record keeping for landlords

The importance of records

Keeping track of expenses - and future liabilities, such as taxes - will help to ensure that you retain enough cash to avoid any surprises.

You also need an audit trail for anything that HMRC is likely to require records for, and these records need to be kept for at least six years. It can sound complicated, but simple tracking and a few good habits will ensure you have all the information you may need at your fingertips.

Records you need to keep for HMRC

With Provestor, you'll be keeping track of many of your records as you use the software day to day.

Tenant records

HMRC requires you to keep records of your tenants, including the dates you let out your properties. You can create tenancies in Provestor and capture all the information needed for complete records.

Rent and other income

Income records are important for accurate taxes and accounting. With Provestor, it's easy to create and send invoices for rent for any services you give to tenants (e.g. charges for maintenance or repairs).

Bank statements

With the modernisation of banks and Open Banking, managing bank statements has become much easier. You'll need to keep or have access to 6 years of bank statements should HMRC request to see copies.

Business expenses

Expenses can be tricky to keep track of, particularly if you have multiple properties. Here are two key tips to stay organised:

1. Use your business bank account to pay for all of your portfolio expenses

   • This is much easier and quicker to separate your business expenses from your personal spending.

2. Keep your receipts safe, either digitally or in their original paper form

   • We recommend scanning them into the Provestor app as soon as possible, or batching receipts to scan in once a week or monthly.

A note on expenses: There are rules regarding what constitutes a business expense for tax purposes. HMRC is clear on what is an allowable business expense: “The costs you pay with the sole purpose of earning business profits are allowable expenses”.

Business travel in a personal vehicle

We’re talking specifically about business mileage in this section. If you’re using public or hired transport, this is covered in the expenses section as there is an audit trail of receipts.

For business mileage, it’s important to track and log journeys accurately to ensure the mileage claimed can be supported by information showing the purpose of the journey.

We've made this easy for you - within the expenses feature of Provestor you can record all the important information in your mileage log and easily reimburse the expense.

Payroll records

If your company pays anyone a salary, they will be on your company payroll. This means you'll have a PAYE scheme setup for your company and will submit payslips to HMRC electronically every month.

All the records required by HMRC are submitted in real time by our software so your records are taken care of.

Dividends

If the company pays out dividends from company profits, it’s important that these are recorded correctly by producing dividend vouchers.

When you want to pay a dividend, the Provestor software will generate records to ensure you’re compliant.

Property purchases and sales

You’ll handle a lot of documentation when a property is bought or sold. It’s really important to keep your documents safe and accessible for when you or your accountant needs them.

Keep any legal documents that are related to the sale or purchase in a safe location, particularly :

• mortgage offers

• solicitors fees

• stamp duty fees

Our accountants need copies too so we'll upload them to your secure document store for you.