Owners of holiday homes here in the UK that rent their property out for a large proportion of the year are expected to be hit by a stealth tax. Around 60,000 holiday home owners will be affected by the new taxes, wth each one being charged an extra £4000 every year.

The stealth taxes will hit those who offer their house for atleast 140 days each year. The holiday home also has to be rented out for atleast 70 of those 140 days that it’s available. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some people renting their houses out for 139 days a year.

The new taxes will be coming into force because, according to the Treasury, the tax rules at the moment break European laws. This is because current holiday home owners are able to receive tax reductions on certain things because they are classed as traders. The new tax laws will mean that they have to pay more taxes as they will now be classes as investors.

Although this isn’t good news for holiday home owners, it is good news for the Government. Due to the large number of home owners being affected, the Government look to make around £20 million each year from the new taxes. Despite the Government making this extra £20 million, it could prove to be worse for the Government than first appears.

This new stealth tax won’t come as good news for holiday home owners. Many already pay high amounts for things like maintenance and holiday cottage insurance. Now due to holiday home owners being charged more, therefore making less profits, many holiday home owners will be forced to close down. According to analysts, the resulting action of the stealth tax could cost the tourism business over £200 million. Not only will money be lost from a reduced amount of tourists, but jobs will also be lost with the increased amount of closing holiday homes. Yet more bad news for the current recession.

If you’re trying to find insurance for holiday homes based in the UK, or maybe overseas property insurance for your holiday home abroad, Schofields is the place to go.

Has owning your own holiday home abroad always been your dream? The ability to just pay for the flights and you can enjoy a 2 week break in places like America, Spain or France, it sounds brilliant. Well you no longer have to dream about it due to the global recession.

As we all know, the global recession has hit many places hard, many people are struggling to pay bills. One of the worst hit countries is America and a large number of people living in Europe have no idea. However, some people will be able to benefit from the troubles they are having, just as long as you have some extra cash.

Currently, house prices around America has fallen, from the highs back in 2005, by around 50% to 60%. With the global recession making everyone tigher with their money, this has led to a huge number of new properties going up for sale, currently there are around 19,000 properties for sale in Kissimmee in the Florida area.

Because of these very low prices, plus the improvement in the exchange rates, buying a property in America has never been more tempting. Hopefully, as more money is pumped into holiday homes, it should help both the US and the UK’s recession position. I say it might do this because as more people put money in the US housing marketing, they will also have to buy overseas property insurance.

The majority of Brits buying a holiday home out their will choose to get their holiday home insurance from companies within the UK because that’s where they mainly live. This means good news for the UK market because more money is being pumped into that as well. However, I wouldn’t have thought many insurance companies will make alot of holiday cottage insurance sales as although property prices in the US are down all over the country, you’ll find it hard to buy a small little cottage like you would find in France or Spain.

It might be all of the financial troubles here in the UK. Even more folks are searching for a second home that they can use for cheaper vacations or to let out during the rest of the unused year. A lot of people have indeed managed to escape the UK and jet off to sunnier climates by buying overseas property.

Choosing to follow this route is becoming even easier, no matter what age group you are, you can still buy new property or even move abroad, however, whatever you do, you will still need to protect your new investment. Finding a company that will give cost effective cover for second home insurance and overseas property insurance isn’t as easy and can often be more costly than you might imagine.

Searching for second home insurance that suits your needs can be an expensive and tiring chore. That’s due to the fact that these second homes could be left unoccupied for extended periods, especially during winter with the associated risks of burst pipes and freezing damage. Even if you are able to overcome those problems, it can still become stressful when the property is damaged by the current occupiers.

If you do obtain cover you will probably find that most holiday home or buy to let insurance policies have restrictions in the small print. Unless you comply absolutely to the letter with security and occupancy requirements, you may be shocked to find your insurance is invalid when you make a claim. Although they may be hard to find, there are some providers out there that understand that as it is a second home, it won’t be occupied all year round.  

Because of this reason, there are some policies available that won’t end up leaving you with no water or electricity as they have no restrictions or exclusions in the small print. In the end, if you do decide to rent out your new property, those policies also come with extra things like protection against your content if it is damaged by the current guests.