In their Budget submission to the Chancellor, ARLA urged the government to support growth in the Private Rented Sector and remove prohibitive barriers to further investment.
Ian Potter, operations manager at ARLA, said: “Landlords must be treated as the entrepreneurial businesses they have now become.
“Demand for private rented housing continues to grow with 3.4m tenants living in the private rented sector, an increase of over one million tenants since 2005.
“The tax system can be used by the government to incentivise investment in housing stock in the PRS and therefore improve the conditions in which those 3.4m tenants live.”
ARLA’s Budget submission calls on the government to encourage investment in the private rented sector by treating rented property as an entrepreneurial business activity for Capital Gains Tax purposes.
It also calls on the government to re-introduce roll over relief for landlords looking to reinvest in the private rented sector and re-assess the “slab” structure of stamp duty to create a fairer system.
Potter added: “Landlords play a vitally important role in providing housing in the UK however they are not treated as businesses by the Treasury and therefore can’t take advantage of tax relief available to other SME’s when looking to reinvest their portfolio.
“Some landlords face tax bills of up to 28% when selling a property preventing them reinvesting in the market.”
