5 min read · Updated 2026-06-19
If you let property, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax replaces your annual Self Assessment with year-round digital reporting once your income is over the threshold. It started on 6 April 2026, and the rules have a few twists that matter specifically to landlords.
What counts is your qualifying income — your gross rent before expenses, added to any self-employment turnover. It is the gross figure, not your profit, so you can be in scope even after a mortgage leaves you with little left over.
So a landlord with £55,000 of gross rent is in from April 2026 even if the profit after mortgage interest is modest.
If you own a property with someone else, you count only your share of the gross rent towards the threshold, and you report only your share. A couple splitting a £40,000 rental 50/50 each count £20,000, not £40,000.
You do not report each property separately. Your UK properties are pooled into a single UK property business, and each quarterly update is the combined income and expenses across all of them. Furnished holiday lets and overseas property follow their own rules.
MTD changes how you report, not how the tax is worked out. Mortgage interest is still restricted under Section 24 — not deducted from profit, but given as a 20% basic-rate tax reduction. Higher-rate landlords still feel that pinch, and from April 2027 property income gets its own higher rates too.
Keep digital records of rent and expenses as they happen, send HMRC four quarterly updates, then confirm everything in a year-end Final Declaration that replaces your Self Assessment. The quarterly updates are running totals, not mini tax returns — no tax is due until the Final Declaration.
The landlords who find MTD painless are the ones who keep their figures current rather than reconstructing a year of statements each quarter. Plot keeps your rental income, expenses and tax live all year — including the Section 24 credit — so each deadline is a non-event.
Yes, if your combined gross self-employment and property income is over the threshold for your phase. It is based on gross income, not profit.
You count and report only your share of the gross rent, as shown on your tax return — not the whole property's income.
No. Your UK properties are reported together as a single UK property business, with one combined quarterly update.
No. MTD changes how you report; the tax calculation is unchanged. Mortgage interest still gives a 20% tax reduction rather than being deducted from profit.