Landlord Tax

[DW]

Hi

Just bought a property to rent in UK and the house needs renovations doing before I rent it out. As a non taxing paying person can I claim the VAT back on renovations ?

Thanks

[kaki11]

If the work is being done on a property in the UK then you will incur VAT. VAT is an input/output tax and not lnked to income or corporation tax treatments.
Even if your tradesman takes payments in readies he will probably want to invoice you for some of the work in order to offset the VAT he has paid on his inputs. He will register for VAT if his turnover is more than GBP67k.
VAT is at the reduced rate of 5% for energy efficiency work and some conversions but you need to see if this applies to you.
As a landlord it will be difficult for you to offset the VAT you incur as you probably won't be registering for VAT and therefore will not be charging VAT on the rent.
The main benefit to being a landlord is getting tax relief on the mortgage interest and any capital gain on the property. The capital gains tax can be avoided if you juggle your primary residence status carefully - assuming you only have on or two investment properties.