My brother and I are renting out two spare rooms in our house and we share the rental income. Do we need to set up a partnership or we can just file a self-assessment return each? Is there any difference/benefit setting up a partnership versus joint ownership?

Arthur Weller replies:
In its Property Income manual (at www.gov.uk/hmrcinternal-manuals/property-income-manual/pim1030), HMRC state that most jointly-owned properties that are rented out will simply be that - jointly owned, and not a partnership. In a jointly-owned rental business, you take the annual figures for this property and divide them by two, and each partner amalgamates these figures with their other personal rental results. However, a partnership rental business must be kept separate from any personal rental business and must be filed separately with HMRC