Repeal of furnished holiday lets regime

From April 2025, holiday lets lose their special tax treatment. Landlords must prepare for new Income, Capital Gains, and Corporation Tax rules. Here's what’s changing.

The repeal of the Furnished Holiday Lets (FHL) regime, a long-standing arrangement that offered tax advantages for individuals and companies letting out properties on a short-term basis, has now come into force. The removal of these benefits will affect both Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax from 6 April 2025, and Corporation Tax (including chargeable gains) from 1 April 2025.

These changes mean that properties previously classified as FHLs will now be treated as part of the individual's overall UK or overseas property business and will be subject to the same rules as non-FHL property businesses.

Under the previous regime, qualifying FHLs benefited from several tax reliefs that were not available to standard buy-to-let properties. These included the ability to claim capital allowances on furniture and fixtures and Business Asset Disposal Relief. With the repeal, these advantages will no longer apply.

Another important aspect of the reform is the removal of the FHL-specific exemption from the jointly held property rules. Under the new rules, income and gains from jointly owned holiday lets will by default be split equally between spouses or civil partners, unless:

• entitlement to the income and the property are in unequal shares; and

• spouses or civil partners have informed HMRC that their share of profits and losses is to match the share each holds in the property. This can be done using Form 17: Declare beneficial interests in joint property and income.