Second home owners can save tax if their second property is available for holiday lets. This savings comes in the form of tax relief but also because the owners can pay business rates rather than council tax if the property is made available to let for at least 140 days a year. 

HMRC have that said that 96% of the 60,000 second home owners who have registered their property to avoid paying council tax, being around 57,000, have declared a rateable value of £12,000 or less. This means they are also exempt from business rates under the Business Rate Relief COVID scheme which is designed to help small businesses. In effect, they are getting their rubbish collected and other council services for free. 

A tax policy and consultation update (Spring 2021) has now been released in which the Government has published a series of tax documents and consultations to legislate against the owners falsely claiming that their second property is a holiday let. 

A full list of the announcements can be seen in the Command Paper