silverhow

I am helping my wife complete her tax return for a couple of properties she rents out. In the 2022/23 tax year, there was serious water damage to one of the properties, which caused significant damage to the floor and necessitated the complete replacement of the kitchen. The cost of this was around £8,000 and she received what I regard as a very small insurance payout of around £1,400. Basically, they reimbursed the cost of fixing the floor but not for replacing the kitchen. Probably we cannot now challenge this - but we are considering trying to re-open the case. I have three queries, please: (1) I presume she can offset the like for like kichen replacement cost against the rental income - but how should she treat the insurance payout? Should it just be deducted from the total repairs and maintenance costs? (2) The total repairs and maintence bill plus other allowable costs come to slightly more than the income for the property leading to a small net loss for the year. However, my wife owns a second property and normally reports the figures for both of them together. So can she offset the loss on one property against the profits on the other, or does the loss have to be carried over? (3) If my wife succeeds in re-opening the insurance claim and receives a payout in a later tax year, how should she report this? As rental income for that tax year or as a deduction in "repairs and maintenance" again.