Making Tax Digital for landlords

When a landlord is in

• Gross rental income (before expenses) is added to any self-employment turnover. £25,000 rent plus £27,000 self-employment is £52,000 of qualifying income.
• For a jointly owned property only the landlord’s share counts: half of £50,000 is £25,000.
• Property income must be annualised by the landlord if the accounting period is longer or shorter than 12 months; HMRC only annualises for sole traders.

How the property business is treated

• All UK lets together form one UK property business, so one set of quarterly updates covers them, including the landlord’s share of joint lets.
• Foreign property needs records kept for each property, but is reported as one foreign property business.
• Only one software product can be used for each separate submission. A landlord cannot split UK property quarterly updates across two products.

Joint lets: the expenses shortcut

For jointly let property, quarterly updates can include income and expenses, or income only. If expenses are left out during the year, they are reported after the year ends by resending the fourth update before the tax return.

Rent-a-Room

Rent-a-Room income needs digital records if the landlord used Rent-a-Room relief for their home and also had other UK property income on their last return, or had no other UK property income but gross UK property income above the Rent-a-Room threshold. In those cases the relief is then applied automatically.

Software for landlords

On HMRC’s finder on 27 October 2026, 95 of 103 products support UK property income and 71 support foreign property. 72 UK-property products handle both quarterly updates and the tax return; 17 have a free version. Filter them in our software tracker.

Common questions