New queries, issue 4220

Office rent

We operate as a small tax consultancy from our respective houses (director and secretary); due to the geographical spread of our clientele we find this commercially efficient.

Some years ago an article suggested that the rent-a-room legislation as originally drafted in F(No2)A 1992 did not exclude arrangements such as ours whereby the company pays rent to the key employees for offices etc.

It also noted that HMRC do not agree with this analysis so as the director I flagged up on my returns that I was claiming rent-a-room exemption and have not heard anything since I started doing this five years ago.

In the case of the secretary (who is not in self assessment) correspondence is now taking place with HMRC who are disputing the exempt treatment referring among other things to Pepper v Hart and the ‘intention of the...