By Tony Booth

The influential Institute of Directors (IoD) is calling on the Government to scrap mortgage interest tax concessions, which are currently allowed as expense deductions against an individual's annual rental income tax liability.

The IoD's proposals have received criticism from the mortgage industry, but others are welcoming them as a way of further cooling off the UK's overheated buy-to-let market.

The tax break extended to buy-to-let investors is worth almost £2billion and this represents a loss of potential revenue to the Treasury, which is why Government are taking the call from the Institute of Directors for the concession to be scrapped very seriously.

The concern is that as the BTL phenomenon has grown over the last six years, losses to the Treasury have increased - and it seems certain that more and more people are likely to claim the concession in the future, as the volume of investors and the number of properties they buy expands.