renovations, furniture and tax breaks

[huckaback]

Hi, we are living in cornwall but may be moving so are considering keeping our place by renting it out for a certain amount of time (hopefully being able to use it as much as possible ourselves!) I believe there are some changes in rules to this and how often it must be rented. Does anyone know?

Also we will take most of our furniture with us so need to re-furnish and update some of the bathrooms. I am trying to find out whether there are any tax breaks for getting started, for purchasing quite a lot of new furniture or whether you need to finance this without being able to off-set it against tax?

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Nemo]

No time to give you any real help but start with a read of this thread.

viewtopic.php?t=12772

It's still work in progress as I understand it, but the principles are probably nearly there.

Also do a search on direct.gov.uk for holiday lettings and that will give you some more basic info and reading.

[charles cawley]

Before spending any large sums on bathrooms, decor etc it is well worth spending some time to make sure you get a good formula.

There is no one 'right' formula, but there are many wrong steps such as busy pictures and cushions in a timbered interior, old fashioned TVs etc:

LH is a useful source of info about this sort of thing; it's worth working through old posts.