It makes a big difference to your tax whether you can offset costs as revenue expenditure or remove costs because they are capital expenditure
HMRC published a guide on this in September 2016 and have circulated in in their Agent Alert Self Assessment Special January 2016.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-capital-vs-revenue-expenditure-toolkit
The Toolkit is really useful and covers lots of problem areas:
- Acquisition, improvement and alterations to assets – highly relevant to property investors
- Legal and Professional – including how to handle unsuccessful property purchases – which are a capital cost – and Business Owner Training Costs
- Finance Costs
- IT Costs – including websites
- Intangible assets – such as Goodwill
