Professional advice for UK rental and tax amnesty?

Asked by a friend for advice re their former family home in UK which has been rented off and on since they moved back here, nothing done officially with it as initially they thought they might be moving back but anyway didn't happen. This is outside my area of expertise and I imagine they need a professional who is expert in overseas property income/tax etc, I have read up loads on previous questions etc but it's complicated.

It's a long story and while yes they should of course regularised it at the time, they didn't as the rent was just paying the mortgage and maintenance and no surplus came back to Ireland so foolishly didn't see it as extra income. Now they have been considering selling the house and worried about what that might entail.

Any suggestions for firms/individuals/experts who might be able to advise and untangle this mess?

Why don't you send a pm to one of the accountants on here Monbretia. Tommy McGibney is near the North so I'd say he'd be very good on the cross border stuff. I'm not sure where the others are based but they'll tell you quick enough if they have the experience.

Also before he goes to a firm, has he all the paperwork in order. Might be an idea for him to do up an excel with as much detail as possible for each year. You could also post it up here for ideas.

All citizens got a revenue circular about 'disclosures' recently, a new way of lowering penalties if you self confess before they find you, that sounds like what your friends needs to know about.

Thanks Bronte, that's the letter he got that got him thinking again about it. The paperwork is a huge issue in my opinion, there are practically no records other than the mortgage payments made, memory isn't even accurate as to when it was and wasn't occupied, it was just let ramble on without structure unfortunately.

I understand that, so what he needs to do is sit down and start from this year and work back. It will jog his memory. He should check out his bank statements, credit card statements for things he paid for. There are obvious one's too like the bins every year, or whatever else one pays for as a landlord in the UK.

And I can just hear the accountants on here groan at your last post. He can't go to them with nothing. They aren't miracle workers and can't just find the figures for him. So first step is pen and paper ! My accountant showed me a box of receipts a client had brought in, it was a great filing system by the client, all stuffed in a corn flake box ! As you do.

I know! I do my own business tax return and another family member so I am very careful re records/receipts etc. The matter is further complicated by the fact that a friend of owner in Uk was looking after the house re tenants/maintenance etc and retained any surplus rent above mortgage for this purpose, I'd safely say there isn't a receipt to be found! He did enquire about this some years back and the advice given was 'let sleeping dogs lie', however that's not a plan either as eventually something has to done with the house and most likely needs to be sold at this stage.

In relation to sleeping dogs, I presume he's thought of selling? Just saying.

He would sell at this stage no problem but is afraid that will trigger questions anyway. Basically an honest person believe it or not the situation just kind of kept going with no thought being put into it and not even money being made really as always rented well below market rent and sporadically, it did pay the mortgage though so that was the benefit had. Very careless in hindsight!