The FHL Capital Allowances Deadline Most Holiday Let Owners Think They've Already Missed
If you own a furnished holiday let, there is a good chance you have written off a tax claim that is still very much open. The headlines said the rules ended in April 2025. Most owners read that, assumed the door had shut, and moved on. The door has not shut.
For individuals, it stays open until 31 January 2027, and what sits behind it is often tens of thousands of pounds in unclaimed tax relief.
What actually changed in April 2025
The furnished holiday lettings (FHL) tax regime was abolished on 6 April 2025 for income tax and capital gains tax, and on 1 April 2025 for corporation tax. From those dates, a holiday let is taxed like any other residential property business.
The single biggest casualty was capital allowances. Under the old rules, an FHL was treated almost like a trade. That let owners claim relief on the qualifying plant and machinery embedded in the building: heating systems, ventilation, water and electrical systems, fitted bathrooms and kitchens, and items as ordinary as the door ironmongery.
Here is the part that creates the urgency. Once a property is treated as a standard residential let, the rules that block capital allowances on items inside a dwelling apply. The relief on those embedded fixtures cannot be claimed later. If it is not secured while the property still qualifies as an FHL, it is gone for good.
The deadline everyone quotes, and the one they don't
Search for the deadline on tax returns under the old FHL rules and you will see the same date everywhere: 31 January 2026, the filing deadline for the 2024/25 tax return. That is the date the accountancy firms led with, and it is why so many owners now believe they are too late.
However, there is a key detail missing from this date.
A self assessment tax return can be amended for up to 12 months after its filing deadline. The 2024/25 return was due by 31 January 2026, which means it can be amended until 31 January 2027. Capital allowances are claimed through the return, so an owner who filed without pooling their qualifying expenditure can still go back, amend the return, and bring that expenditure into a pool before the amendment window closes.
There is an important nuance worth being clear on: the expenditure has to belong to the FHL period, meaning your 2024/25 return, and HMRC's transitional rules let a pool created for that year continue to be written down afterwards. Miss the window, and the relief on those fixtures is lost permanently.
Why your accountant probably hasn't claimed this
Many owners assume their accountant has this covered. Usually they do not, and that is not a failing. It is simply outside the scope of standard compliance work.
When you bought the property you paid one price for the whole building. Nobody itemised how much related to the wiring, the heating or the sanitaryware. To make a valid claim, that price has to be apportioned across the qualifying assets on a just and reasonable basis, which takes a physical survey and a specialist valuation rather than a bookkeeping exercise.
Specialist surveys typically identify between 20% and 35% of a property's purchase price as qualifying plant and machinery.
As specialist accountants for holiday lets and Airbnbs, Linggard and Thomas work alongside dedicated capital allowances specialists. We handle the tax position and the return; the surveyor identifies and values what qualifies. Together, that turns an overlooked building into a documented, HMRC-compliant claim.
What's at stake
The numbers are not trivial. Specialists in this field report that owners recover an average of around £35,000 per property, and estimate that roughly 80% have never fully claimed what they were entitled to.
Take a £400,000 holiday let where a survey identifies 25%, or £100,000, as qualifying fixtures. For a higher rate taxpayer that pool can be worth up to £40,000 in relief as it unwinds over future years. It is drawn down over time rather than paid in a lump, but it is real money off a tax bill that would otherwise be lost. For portfolio owners the effect compounds, sheltering profits across the wider property business for years.
What to do before the window closes
- Confirm the property qualified as an FHL up to abolition.
- Check whether allowances were ever pooled. If embedded fixtures were never claimed, the opportunity is almost certainly still live.
- Arrange a specialist survey. This is the step that takes time, and capacity tightens as the deadline nears.
- Amend the relevant return in time: 31 January 2027 for individuals, around March 2027 for companies.
Need Help Claiming FHL Expenses Back Before The Deadline? We Can Help!
The story you have probably been told is that capital allowances on holiday lets ended in April 2025 and the deadline passed in January 2026. The fuller, more useful truth is that the amendment window keeps the claim open until 31 January 2027 for individuals. Behind it sits relief that is often worth tens of thousands of pounds, and once it closes on a given property, it cannot be reopened.
If you own a furnished holiday let and you are not certain a capital allowances claim has been made, the sensible move is to find out now while there is still time to act. Get in touch with the team at Linggard & Thomas and we will review your position, tell you plainly whether a claim is worth pursuing, and bring in the right specialist to secure it.
