Furnishing a let for the first time
Capital. Beds, sofas and appliances bought to furnish a let home get no tax relief now that the holiday let rules - and their capital allowances - have gone.
Guide for hosts
What can an Airbnb host claim? The costs that count, and where each goes.
The costs of running a short let come off your rent before tax. Some do not count, one counts differently, and furniture depends on whether it is the first or a replacement. Here they are, in the boxes of the property pages of your tax return.
The rule
A cost counts if it is for the letting - not for you - and is a running cost rather than buying or improving the property. If you stay in the place yourself, or let friends stay free, only the share of a cost that belongs to the letting counts; your accountant can help you make a fair split.
The costs, box by box
| Box on the property pages | Short-let costs that go in it |
|---|---|
| Rent, rates, insurance, ground rents | Council tax or business rates, holiday-let insurance, ground rent and service charge, rent you pay for a place you let on |
| Property repairs and maintenance | Repairs, maintenance and redecorating - putting things right, not improving them |
| Legal, management and other professional fees | Airbnb's, Booking.com's and Vrbo's fees, a co-host's or manager's fee, your accountant |
| Costs of services provided, including wages | Cleaning, laundry and linen, guest supplies, and the gas, electricity, water and broadband your guests use |
| Other allowable property expenses | Advertising and photography, software, safety certificates and licences, bank charges, travel to the property for the letting |
The one that counts differently: mortgage interest
Interest on a loan for the property is not taken off your rent. 20% of it comes off your tax instead, capped by your property profit and your income. Since April 2025 that applies to short lets as it does to every other let home. A company deducts it in full.
Furniture: first purchase or replacement?
Replacing like for like
A cost, under replacement of domestic items relief: replacing a worn sofa, a broken fridge or old bedding with the same kind of thing, less anything you got for the old one.
What does not count
- Buying the property, extending it or improving it - these are capital.
- Your own time.
- The personal share of anything you use yourself.
- Fines, and the tax on your profit.
Or skip the receipts: the £1,000 allowance
Instead of your actual costs you can take £1,000 off your property income - worthwhile only if your costs are less than £1,000. If you claim it you cannot deduct your costs as well. A room in your own home may come under Rent a Room instead: up to £7,500 a year tax-free.
How Stoneledger Hosts handles it
Choose what a cost was for in your own words - cleaning, laundry, utilities - and it goes in the right box. Platform fees come in with your payouts. Mortgage interest, first furniture and replacements are each kept apart, so your profit and your tax are worked out the way HMRC works them out.
Sources, read on 7 October 2026: the SA105 notes for 2025; GOV.UK, Work out your rental income; GOV.UK, Abolition of the furnished holiday lettings tax regime.
More for hosts
Keep reading, or try it on your own file.
Airbnb accounting in the UK
What to record, when it counts, and how to keep it right all year.
Holiday let tax after April 2025
What changed when the furnished holiday lettings rules ended.
Airbnb payouts and your bank
Why the money in your bank never matches your bookings, and how to tie them up.
Making Tax Digital for hosts
Who is in, from when, and what counts towards the line.
Booking.com for UK hosts
Commission, payment fees and VAT on fees, and how payouts are made up.
Beyond the host spreadsheet
What a spreadsheet does well, and where it starts to cost you.
Free Airbnb profit check
Your own file, read on your device: what you were paid, and what you made.
See what your own lets actually made.
Stoneledger Hosts reads your Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo files, takes your costs and your bank statement, and shows your true profit, property by property. Start with the free check on your own file.
Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo are trademarks of their owners. Stoneledger Hosts is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by them. This guide is general information, not tax advice; for your own circumstances, speak to a qualified adviser.