Abta has welcomed an unexpected benefit for the domestic holidays market following the calling of the general election.
The Labour government had been preparing to use the Finance Bill to repeal the Furnished Holiday Lettings rules, which gave tax relief to owners who let their UK holiday home out on a short term basis and who are liable to pay UK tax, on April 6.
However, following the calling of the general election on the same day, there simply wasn’t time to repeal the legislation which could have cost the industry up to £200 million and 4,500 jobs.
Instead, the Labour party has said the repeal will be delayed until after the next election should it regain power while the Tories have pledged to drop the measure.
The move was welcomed by Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer who said: “The repeal of the FHL rules would have had an extremely damaging impact on domestic tourism and many of our members’ businesses and we welcome the government’s sensible decision to set aside the proposed repeal for the time being.
“We will call on the new government in office after 6 May to listen to industry concerns and reform FHLs in a way that both achieves government objectives as well as supporting domestic tourism.”