Making Tax Digital for landlords, in plain English

Am I in? The three dates

“Gross” means before expenses: the rent you receive, not the profit. A landlord with £52,000 of rent and £40,000 of costs is in from April 2026. Income from a jointly owned property counts at your share. Foreign property income counts too. HMRC looks at the tax return you filed for the year two years before the start date, so for most landlords the position is already decided by figures they have filed.

Check if you’re in — in three steps

MTD is decided by a simple sum. Put your own numbers in below and it will tell you, in plain English, whether you are in and from when. Nothing is sent anywhere — it works out the answer on your own device.

This is a guide, not a formal decision. HMRC works from the figures on your filed tax return for the year two years before each start date, and can exempt people who are digitally excluded. If your income is close to a threshold, check with us or your accountant. Thresholds correct as at 22 September 2026; re-checked after each Budget.

Worked examples: are these people in?

Six ordinary situations, worked through the same way the checker does it. Find the one closest to you.

The three rules these show: use gross income before costs; a wage taxed through PAYE does not count; and property and self-employment add together. Jointly owned property is counted at your share.

What actually changes

1. Digital records

Every rental receipt and expense is recorded in software, or in a spreadsheet linked to software, rather than on paper or in a plain spreadsheet you type into a return once a year. Bank feeds make this easier than it sounds; a shoebox of receipts does not.

2. Four quarterly updates

Each quarter you send HMRC a summary of income and expenses so far in the year. The quarters end on 5 July, 5 October, 5 January and 5 April, and each update is due by the 7th of the following month: 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. The updates are cumulative and are not tax returns; you can correct earlier figures in a later update, and no tax is due with them.

3. One final declaration

After the year ends you confirm the full-year figures, add anything else (savings interest, pension, employment) and claim reliefs, by 31 January as now. That is when the tax is worked out and paid. Payments on account continue as before.

4. Software

You need MTD-compatible software, or bridging software that links a spreadsheet to HMRC. HMRC publishes a list; several products are free for landlords with simple affairs. An accountant or bookkeeper can do the quarterly updates for you: that is the service Landlord Accounting provides.

What a quarterly update actually looks like

This is the part people dread, and it is smaller than they fear. A quarterly update is just a running total of your income and expenses for the three months — no tax bill, no calculations, no explanations. Your software adds it up and sends it. For a landlord with one flat, the first quarter might be as short as this:

That is the whole submission. You do it four times a year, and the figures are cumulative — each update includes the year so far, so if you got something slightly wrong last quarter you simply correct it in the next one. The actual tax is worked out once, at the year end.

Your year, on a calendar

For a landlord in the first group (2026/27), the four quarters and their deadlines fall like this. Each update is due on the 7th of the month after the quarter ends.

Penalties: the points system

For the first year, 2026 to 2027, there is a soft landing: HMRC will not issue any penalty points for a late quarterly update (late payment of tax, and the year-end return, still count). From 2027 to 2028 the points system applies in full. Late quarterly updates earn a point each; four points triggers a £200 penalty, and points expire only after a run of on-time submissions. Late payment of the tax itself is separate and applies from the first year. If tax is unpaid 15 days after the due date you are charged 3% of it; another 3% if it is still unpaid at 30 days; and after that a daily charge (an annual rate of 10%) until it is paid, plus interest throughout. You avoid the penalties (though not the interest) by paying, or by agreeing a Time to Pay arrangement, within those windows. In practice the real risk is not the money but the habit: a quarterly rhythm is easy to keep and easy to lose.

If you own property jointly

This is the question that catches most couples and co-owners out, so it is worth being exact. The threshold is tested on each person’s share of the rent, not on the property’s total. There is no such thing as a joint registration — HMRC looks at each owner on their own.

So take a portfolio that brings in £50,000 of gross rent, owned 50/50. Each owner’s share is £25,000. That is below the £50,000 threshold, so neither owner has to join MTD in April 2026. If they have no other qualifying income, they are not brought in until the threshold falls to £20,000 in April 2028.

Two practical points follow. First, work out your share of the gross rent, before any expenses, and compare that figure to the threshold for the year — not the headline rent roll. Second, if you and your partner want the income split in a proportion other than your legal ownership, that must be set up correctly (for a married couple, using Form 17); the split HMRC uses for MTD is the one that appears on your return.

There is also a genuine easement for joint owners, confirmed by HMRC in January 2025: you must report the joint-property income every quarter, but you only need to record the expenses once a year, at the final declaration. For couples where one person keeps the books, that removes a lot of quarterly work.

Two easements landlords should know

• Jointly owned property. Income is reported quarterly but expenses only once a year — and the threshold is tested on each owner’s share, not the whole property. See If you own property jointly above for the detail and worked examples.
• Three-line accounts. If your total turnover is below the VAT threshold you can send totals of income and expenses in each update rather than category-by-category figures.

What MTD does not change

• The tax you pay. Rates, allowances, Section 24 and the rest are exactly as before; only the reporting changes.
• Companies. MTD for Income Tax applies to individuals. A company landlord files a corporation tax return as now.
• Landlords below the threshold. Nothing changes for you until your income crosses it, though you can join early if it suits you.
• Rent a Room only. If your only property income is a lodger within the £7,500 relief, you are not brought in.

Getting ready, in order

1. Check your gross property and self-employment income on your last filed return against the threshold for your start date.
2. Choose software or a bookkeeper, and connect your rental bank account so receipts and payments flow in automatically. Keeping the rent in one dedicated account makes this trivial.
3. Sign up for MTD through your HMRC account, or ask your agent to. HMRC also writes to landlords it believes are in scope.
4. Put the four dates in your calendar for the year.
5. Use our tenancy and mortgage records tools so the figures the software needs are already to hand.

Do I need an accountant, or can I do it myself?

Honestly, it depends on two things: how many properties you have, and how comfortable you are with software.

• One or two properties, simple affairs, happy with an app: you can do it yourself. Choose HMRC-recognised software, connect your rental bank account so the figures flow in, and send four updates a year. Several products are free for landlords with straightforward affairs.
• Several properties, a company, joint ownership, or you just don’t want the quarterly worry: a bookkeeper or accountant can do the updates for you. That is exactly the service Landlord Accounting provides — you stay the taxpayer, they keep the records and hit the deadlines.

Either way, the single thing that makes MTD easy is keeping the rent in one dedicated bank account, so every receipt and payment is in one place for the software to read.

Common questions

Thresholds and dates are as announced by HM Treasury and HMRC at the review date and re-checked after each Budget. This is general information, not advice on your own position.