Software & Property

I’m Clive — a qualified Chartered Accountant and hands-on property investor with over 30 years’ experience helping people make smarter financial decisions and build long-term wealth.

My day-to-day work is split between:

Investing in high-yield HMO properties across the North West and Yorkshire

Advising landlords, builders, and small businesses on tax, accounting and compliance

And I love both.

Because I believe smart property investing and smart tax planning go hand-in-hand — and most people don’t get either right.

Hello... I'm Clive Cass

━━━━━━━━

Accounting Software

There are 4 ways to maintain your accounting records:

Manual (paper and pen);

Excel which is a spreadsheet that replicates manual records;

Integrated Accounting software such as Quickbooks, Xero, FreeAgent & SAGE.

Integrated Systems

Integrated accounting systems are the way to go when your accountancy and tax requirements reach a certain level of complexity. This will often be the case if you act as a limited company and need a Balance sheet or where you are VAT registered. I am happy to advise what software you will need now and when it is time for you to move on to something else.

Microsoft Excel

Excel is MTD compliant however will not easily cope with more complex issues such as VAT, large portfolios and limited companies where a balance sheet is required. If this is all you can manage it is however a reasonable way (and better than manual records) to provide the information to your book keeper to transfer, if necessary, to accountaing software. I can of course set you up on a suitable Excel accounting system, such as my free one designed for small businesses.

These systems are ideal for landlords of Buy to Lets who want to either manage them rather than get an estate agent to do so or who want to at least be actively involved in some aspects of the management.

The accounting systems are excellent but are limited in that they generally cannot handle VAT or produce a balance sheet which is a requirement for limited companies.

The real beauty of these systems is that they are really simple to use and provide a lot of management information from simple reminders about deadlines for insurance or safety checks to details of tenancies and even great financial information such as rental yields, equity and remortages.

Property Management & Accountancy Systems

━━━━━━━━

Elite Broker Blogs

━━━━━━━━

Long stays in holiday lets

HL| Property

June 26, 2026•2 min read

Long stays in holiday lets

This factsheet considers the VAT impact of allowing longer term lets (more than 28 days) in your holiday property.

Value Added Tax

Income from holiday accommodation, is subject to VAT at the standard rate of 20%. This applies to holiday lettings that are advertised as being suitable for holiday or leisure purposes. In addition, accommodation in ‘hotels, inns, boarding houses or similar establishments’ is standard rated, as is the supply of chalets, tents and caravans and pitches for tents and caravans.

The reduced value rule for long stays

The reduced value rule is an easement that reduces the amount of VAT charged to guests who stay in ‘hotels, inns, boarding houses or similar establishments’ for stays lasting more than 28 consecutive days. It does not apply to long stays in other types of accommodation, such as holiday lets, although it can apply to supplies of serviced apartments.

How the reduced value rule works

From day 29 of the long stay, no VAT is charged on the accommodation element of the fee. This means that any element of the fee that relates to food, drink and other services remains subject to VAT. Also, after charges for food and drink are removed, 20% of the remainder is deemed to be in respect of service charges and is also subject to VAT. In cases where the customer has no food or drink, 20% of the selling price is subject to VAT at the standard rate, giving an effective rate of 4% (20% of 20%).

The portion of the fee that is not subject to VAT is not VAT-exempt; it is deemed to be taxable for the purposes of reclaiming input tax. Input tax cannot be reclaimed if it were incurred in respect of exempt supplies, so this is an important distinction.

Is the property a hotel, inn, boarding house or similar establishment?

The answer to the above question is not always clear-cut. We can look at a 2024 First-Tier Tribunal case for clarification: Realreed Ltd v HMRC.

Whilst this case did not consider whether or not a businesses was eligible to use the reduced value rule, it examined the definition of ‘similar establishment’, which “includes premises in which there is provided furnished sleeping accommodation whether with or without the provision of board or facilities for the preparation of food, which are used or held out as being suitable for use by visitors or travellers”.

It was found that Realreed Ltd’s serviced apartments were “ similar establishments”, in that the average length of a stay was less than a fortnight, so guests could be considered ‘visitors or travellers’ as they were not making the apartment their home.

Also, it was found that Realreed provided services that put it in competition with an hotel (daily maid service, linen changing, cleaning, residents bar and concierge).

Further information

Information on the reduced value rule can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hotels-holiday-accommodation-and-vat-notice-7093

To read the Realreed Ltd decision, see: https://financeandtax.decisions.tribunals.gov.uk//judgmentfiles/j12921/TC%2009013.pdf

propertyHoliday Lets

Clive Cass

Clive Cass is a Chartered Accountant & Property Investor who shares his insights into the world of Property Investing. Read along with him as he breaks-down all the facts, information and legislation into easy to follow blog posts.

Back to Blog