Making Tax Digital for Income Tax looks at each person separately. If you own a rental property with someone else, your share of the rent is what counts towards your threshold, and you keep records and send quarterly updates for your share only. Your co-owner does the same for theirs, if they are in Making Tax Digital at all. It is entirely possible for one joint owner to be in and the other to be out.
This guide covers how your share is worked out, what that means for the £50,000, £30,000 and £20,000 thresholds, and the easier record-keeping HMRC allows for jointly let property.
Does joint rental income count towards the MTD threshold?
Yes, but only your share. HMRC's own example: you and your sibling jointly own a property that brings in £50,000 a year, you share it equally, and neither of you has any self-employment income. Your qualifying income is £25,000, not £50,000.
Your share is added to any other property income you have and any self-employment turnover, all before expenses. Salary, pensions and dividends are not included. So a joint owner with a £25,000 share of rent and £30,000 of self-employment turnover has £55,000 of qualifying income and would have been in Making Tax Digital from April 2026, while their co-owner with only the £25,000 share would not.
One wrinkle: if you only ever hear about your share after the expenses have been taken off, HMRC uses that figure when it works out your qualifying income. Your records still need the gross figures, which is covered below.
How your share is decided
The share you are taxed on is not always the same as the share in the title deeds. HMRC's rules depend on who you own with.
If you own with someone who is not your spouse or civil partner
Your share of the profit or loss usually follows your share of the property. You can agree a different split, but the share you use for tax has to be the one you have actually agreed.
If you own with your spouse or civil partner
If you live together, the income is normally taxed 50/50, whatever the ownership split. To be taxed on unequal shares, both of these must be true:
- you own the property in unequal shares and are entitled to the income in those same unequal shares; and
- you have both told HMRC, by sending Form 17 with evidence such as a declaration of trust. HMRC's guidance says the form must reach it within 60 days of the declaration of unequal shares.
Getting this right matters twice over under Making Tax Digital: the share decides whether each of you crosses a threshold, and it is the share your quarterly updates have to report.
Each owner is responsible for their own share
- Your share is part of your one UK property business. All your UK lettings, whether you own them outright or jointly, form a single UK property business, and one quarterly update covers the lot.
- You do not need to link your records with your co-owner's. HMRC says so explicitly. Each of you can use different software.
- You only record your share. If the rent is £1,000 a month and you own half, your records show £500.
The simpler record-keeping HMRC allows joint landlords
HMRC allows two easements for jointly let property. You can use either, both, or neither.
1. Less detailed records
Instead of a record for every rent payment, you can keep one record per category of income for each update period, and one record per category of expense for the whole tax year. HMRC's example: rather than three records of £1,000 rent for each month, one record of £3,000 for the quarter.
2. Income-only quarterly updates
You can leave the expenses for jointly let property out of your quarterly updates and add them after the year ends, either by resending your fourth quarterly update or by adjusting the category totals before you submit your tax return. Two limits:
- it only applies to the jointly let property. Expenses for anything you own outright still go in every quarter;
- the expenses still have to be in before you submit the tax return, so this moves the work rather than removing it.
Leaving expenses out also makes the running tax estimate you see during the year look higher than your real position, because it sees the rent without the costs.
If you only get told the net figure
Joint owners often get a single net payment, or a note from the co-owner who manages the property, with the costs already taken off. For your digital records that is not enough. HMRC's guidance says to ask for the full income before expenses, record that, and record the expenses separately. The same applies if a letting agent pays you after fees: see MTD when you use a letting agent.
Joint ownership is not the same as a partnership
If your lettings are run through a partnership that sends its own partnership return, the rules are different. Your share of a partnership's profit does not count towards your qualifying income, partnerships do not have to use Making Tax Digital yet, and HMRC has not set a date for them. You still report your partnership share on your own tax return. If you are unsure which describes your arrangement, ask an adviser before you sign up either way.
Three worked examples
| Situation | Qualifying income | MTD start |
|---|---|---|
| Siblings, £50,000 rent, 50/50, no other income (2024/25) | £25,000 each | Neither in from April 2026. Check again against the £30,000 test using 2025/26 |
| Married couple, £64,000 rent, no Form 17, one spouse also has £20,000 self-employment turnover (2024/25) | £52,000 and £32,000 | The first spouse from April 2026. The second is not in for 2026/27; the April 2027 test uses 2025/26 income |
| Married couple, £64,000 rent, owned 75/25 with a valid Form 17 (2024/25) | £48,000 and £16,000 | Neither in from April 2026 |
The tests are always based on the return for the relevant earlier year: 2024/25 for April 2026, 2025/26 for April 2027 (over £30,000) and 2026/27 for April 2028 (over £20,000).
How VoxaMTD handles joint ownership
You record each property's ownership share once. VoxaMTD applies it to that property's rent and expenses before it builds your quarterly update, and shows you the gross figures next to your share so the smaller numbers are not a surprise. Spouses and civil partners default to 50/50 unless you record that a Form 17 applies. VoxaMTD sends your share of both income and expenses every quarter; it does not use the income-only easement. Sending quarterly updates is free.
Start free, no card needed · Check whether your share puts you in scope
This guide is general information based on HMRC's published guidance as at 27 September 2026. It is not tax or legal advice. The right split for jointly owned property depends on your circumstances, so check GOV.UK or take advice.