The only UK accounting practice that works exclusively with short-term let operators.
Not accountants who also do a few holiday lets. Not hospitality generalists. A single-sector practice, where every client is a short-term let or holiday let operator and every hour of every day is spent on the questions that arise from that.
Focus
Sector focus, not sector coverage.
Every accounting firm in the UK has a page on their website listing the industries they serve. Short-term let is often on that page. A page listing an industry is not the same thing as a practice built around it.
We handle nothing but short-term let and holiday let accounting. The tax rules that matter for our clients — the Furnished Holiday Let regime abolition, the mortgage interest restriction, the VAT treatment of platform fees, the Small Business Bonus interaction with rateable values on self-catering properties, the visitor levy remittance mechanics — are the rules our team spends its working day inside.
That focus is not a marketing claim. It is what we are set up to do, and what we do not do. See our About page for what that specifically means in practice.
Why now
Four changes have hit STL operators in eighteen months.
Furnished Holiday Let regime, abolished April 2025. Full mortgage interest deduction, capital allowances, pension contribution relief, and Business Asset Disposal Relief - all gone. The first full tax year under the new rules has now been filed, and the numbers are materially harder for borrowed portfolios. Read our analysis.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, live April 2026. Individual operators over the qualifying threshold now report to HMRC quarterly. The choice of MTD-compatible software matters more than the marketing suggests, and reconciling three platforms cleanly is more work than a spreadsheet does well.
Registration schemes across the UK. Wales opens its statutory register on 1 October 2026. England follows in March 2027. Scotland's licensing register is now three years live. Every one of these lists property-level data that HMRC and local authorities can query.
Visitor levies, first in Scotland and Wales. Edinburgh's levy went live in July 2026. The Welsh levy framework is now law with individual authorities able to switch it on from 2027. The accounting mechanics - per-booking rate capture, VAT treatment of the levy itself, remittance schedule - need to be in place before the first authority activates.
Services
What we do for STL operators.
Bookkeeping & reconciliation
Monthly bookkeeping, bank reconciliation, and per-property transaction categorisation. Platform statements (Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo) matched cleanly to gross bookings and separately-identified platform fees.
Self-assessment & tax returns
Annual self-assessment for individual operators and corporation tax for incorporated portfolios. Post-FHL treatment of mortgage interest, capital allowances, and replacement-of-domestic-items relief applied correctly - which not every accountant is doing.
VAT
Registration threshold monitoring, quarterly VAT returns, flat rate scheme and TOMS analysis, and specific treatment of platform fees, cleaning fees, and now the Welsh visitor levy - none of which behave the way a generalist accountant assumes.
Business rates & council tax analysis
The 2026 rates revaluation has moved the arithmetic. We model business rates (with SBBS taper) against council tax (with local STL premiums) on each specific property and advise on the right rating for your situation.
Tax planning & structuring
Post-FHL Ltd-vs-sole-trader review, capital allowances audit, pension-contribution planning under the new relevant-earnings rules, and structural advice on how to hold new acquisitions.
Portfolio & agency accounting
Multi-property management accounts, per-property P&L, owner statements for lettings agencies, and consolidated reporting for portfolio holders. Fixed fee, no time-recorded surprises.
Insights
Sector-specific analysis, published regularly.
The 100% Council Tax Premium on English Second Homes: The Arithmetic That Now Forces Every STL Owner to Choose
18 September 2026 · 7 min read
The Furnished Holiday Let Regime, One Full Tax Year On: What Your Return Actually Looks Like Now
12 September 2026 · 9 min read
Business Property Relief From April 2026: What the £2.5m Cap Means for STL Portfolio Succession
10 September 2026 · 8 min read
Pricing
Fixed monthly fees. No time-recorded surprises.
Three packages sized to portfolio scale. All prices exclude VAT. Additional properties and transactions charged on a defined schedule - no hourly billing games.
Single-property operators
- —1 STL property
- —Up to 50 transactions per month
- —Monthly bookkeeping
- —Annual self-assessment
- —Quarterly management summary
- —MTD-compatible filing
- —Email support
Two to three properties
- —Up to 3 STL properties
- —Up to 150 transactions per month
- —Monthly bookkeeping & reconciliation
- —Annual self-assessment
- —Quarterly VAT (if registered)
- —Monthly management accounts
- —Annual tax planning review
- —Business rates vs council tax analysis
- —Visitor levy tracking
- —Phone & email support
Portfolios and agencies
- —Up to 10 STL properties
- —Up to 500 transactions per month
- —Full bookkeeping & bank reconciliation
- —Annual self-assessment or CT return
- —Quarterly VAT
- —Monthly management accounts & P&L
- —Dedicated account manager
- —Proactive tax optimisation
- —Structuring advice (Ltd vs sole trader)
- —HMRC liaison & correspondence
- —Capital allowances review
- —Visitor levy tracking, collection & remittance
- —Priority phone, email & video support
Talk to us
Book a free 15-minute consultation.
Pick a slot and a member of the team will call you. We'll talk through your portfolio, your current accounting set-up, and where we could add value. No obligation, no cost.
Book a consultation →Prefer email? Write to hello@stlaccounting.co.uk. We respond within one working day.