Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is live for landlords. If your qualifying income on your 2024/25 return was over £50,000, you have had to use it since 6 April 2026: keep digital records, send HMRC a summary of your rental income and costs every quarter, and submit your tax return through compatible software. The threshold falls to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. HMRC's statistics, based on 2023/24 returns, count about 259,000 landlords (including those who are also self-employed) with qualifying income over £50,000, another 279,000 between £30,000 and £50,000, and 338,000 between £20,000 and £30,000.
This guide covers who is affected, the dates, what a quarterly update contains, the rules for joint owners, letting agents and holiday lets, and the mistakes that catch landlords out.
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Do you actually have to do this?
You need to use Making Tax Digital if you are registered for Self Assessment, you have property income (or self-employment income, or both), and your qualifying income is over the threshold for the year HMRC checks:
- From 6 April 2026: over £50,000 on your 2024/25 return.
- From 6 April 2027: over £30,000 on your 2025/26 return.
- From 6 April 2028: over £20,000 on your 2026/27 return.
Three details trip landlords up. First, qualifying income is gross, not profit. It is your total rent before any expenses, mortgage interest or allowances come off. A landlord with £52,000 of rent and £20,000 of costs is in, because HMRC looks at the £52,000, not the £32,000 profit.
Second, it is your combined income that counts. If you are a landlord and also self-employed, add the two together. A PAYE salary does not count, and neither do pensions or dividends.
Third, jointly owned property counts at your share. If you own a let property 50/50, half the rent is yours for the test. See MTD for jointly owned property.
If you are not sure where you stand, check in under a minute. HMRC writes to people it identifies from their returns, and since September 2026 it has been signing people up itself, but it is still your responsibility to check. Qualifying income of £20,000 or less is exempt, and some landlords are exempt for other reasons, for example if their 2024/25 return included the SA109 residence pages (exempt until April 2027) or if they are digitally excluded.
The dates you cannot miss
For the 2026/27 tax year, on the standard update periods:
- First update (6 April to 5 July 2026): due 7 August 2026.
- Second update (6 April to 5 October 2026): due 7 November 2026.
- Third update (6 April 2026 to 5 January 2027): due 7 February 2027.
- Fourth update (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027): due 7 May 2027.
- Tax return for 2026/27: due 31 January 2028.
The same dates repeat every year. Each update covers the tax year so far, which is why every period starts on 6 April. If your accounts run to 31 March, HMRC lets you use calendar update periods (1 April to 30 June and so on) with the same deadlines. The full calendar for the next three years is in our MTD deadlines guide.
One thing that confuses people: MTD changes how often you report, not when you pay. Your tax is still due on 31 January, with payments on account on 31 January and 31 July if they apply to you. And the return for the year before you started, 2025/26 for April 2026 joiners, is still sent the normal way by 31 January 2027.
What a quarterly update actually is
A quarterly update is a set of totals: your rental income and your expenses, by category, for the tax year so far. It is not a tax return, you do not make tax adjustments or claim reliefs at this stage, and it does not create a bill. HMRC never sees your individual receipts, only the totals.
- All your UK lettings are one UK property business. Two flats and a house in multiple occupation are still one quarterly update, not three.
- Overseas lettings are a separate foreign property business with its own update.
- If a quarter was empty, with no rent and no costs, you still send the update.
- Mistakes are corrected in the next update. Because each update covers the year to date, you fix the record and it flows through.
Digital records for landlords
Every item of rental income and every expense needs a digital record in your software: the amount, the date, and the category. The categories are the ones you already use for Self Assessment. A few landlord-specific points:
- Simpler categories below £90,000. If your total UK property turnover is under £90,000 you can categorise in less detail, but residential landlords must still record whether an expense is a residential finance cost, because those get relief differently under Section 24.
- Mortgage payments. Record either just the interest, or the full payment and adjust at the year end. The capital repayment is never an expense.
- Bank feeds are allowed, but HMRC says it is your responsibility to check the records are complete and correctly categorised before you send an update.
- Keep the paperwork. You still keep invoices, statements and receipts as you do now, and digital records for at least five years after the 31 January deadline for each year.
Joint owners
Each owner is responsible for their own share. You only record your share, you do not need to link your records with your co-owner's, and HMRC lets joint landlords keep less detailed records and leave joint-let expenses out of quarterly updates until the year end. Married couples and civil partners are taxed 50/50 unless they have declared unequal shares on Form 17. The details are in MTD for jointly owned property.
If you use a letting agent
Your agent's statement shows rent, fees and repairs, then one net payment. Your records need the gross rent as income and the fees and costs as expenses, not the net payment. A letting agent does not file for you unless you have authorised them as your tax agent. See MTD when you use a letting agent.
Holiday lets and rooms in your home
The furnished holiday lettings regime ended on 6 April 2025, so holiday lets are now part of your ordinary property business and go in the same quarterly update. See holiday lets and MTD. If you let a room in your own home under the Rent a Room scheme, you may still need digital records of that income, for example if you have other UK property income.
What happens at the year end
After the fourth update you make any year-end adjustments in your software: taking out disallowable costs, the capital element of mortgage payments, capital spending, and claiming reliefs and allowances. Then you add any other income HMRC has not already added, check the calculation and submit the tax return by 31 January. This is where the Section 24 basic-rate credit for residential finance costs is applied, not in the quarterly updates. HMRC's guidance now calls this the tax return; you will also see it called the final declaration.
The first year, and where it does not protect you
For the 2026/27 tax year, HMRC does not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates. It is breathing room to get used to the system, but it is narrower than it sounds:
- you still have to send all four updates before HMRC will accept your tax return;
- a late tax return (after 31 January 2028) still earns a penalty point;
- paying late still leads to late payment interest and penalties, which work separately from the points.
From 2027/28, each missed quarterly deadline earns a point too, and reaching HMRC's points threshold triggers a financial penalty. HMRC's penalties guidance sets out the amounts. Use the first year to build the habit rather than to ignore the deadlines.
Mistakes that catch landlords out
- Putting mortgage interest in the wrong place. Only the interest is relevant, never the capital, and it is a residential finance cost, not a normal allowable expense. We cover this in our Section 24 guide.
- Recording the agent's net payment as rent. It understates both your income and your costs.
- Forgetting short-let income. Money from Airbnb, VRBO or similar still counts, at the amount before platform fees.
- Treating improvements as repairs. Capital spending is not a quarterly expense. Our allowable expenses guide explains the line.
- Leaving it to the deadline. Connecting software and a bank feed early turns each update into a check rather than a scramble.
Compliance is now part of the picture too
MTD is not the only thing that changed for landlords. Since Section 21 no-fault evictions were abolished on 1 May 2026, every possession runs through the evidence-based Section 8 process, and your compliance paperwork is part of any case. Keeping your gas, electrical, deposit, and other records in order, and being able to prove they were valid when it mattered, now sits alongside your tax filing as something you cannot let slide. We explain the proof side in our guide to proving your rental property is compliant.
How VoxaMTD handles landlord MTD
VoxaMTD sends your UK property quarterly updates and your tax return directly to HMRC's live Making Tax Digital service, and filing them is free. You can bring transactions in through an open banking bank feed, a CSV or Excel upload, or by hand, and AI suggests a category for each one for you to check. Record a property's ownership share once and VoxaMTD applies it to that property's figures, showing the gross amounts beside your share. The free plan also includes a basic tax estimate and the Section 24 calculator. Paid landlord plans add the Alex AI accountant and compliance tools.
Two limits to know before you start: VoxaMTD uses the standard update periods (6th to 5th), and it does not yet send foreign property updates. It is not yet listed on HMRC's published software finder.
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This guide is general information about Making Tax Digital for landlords, based on HMRC's published guidance as at 27 September 2026. It is not tax or legal advice. Check GOV.UK or take advice for your own circumstances.