Landlord guide · Tax
Give your accountant access to your rental accounts
- Accountant link
- Every plan
- Read-only seats
- Professional, £49 a month
- Last reviewed
The short answer
To give your accountant access to your rental accounts without sharing your password, send them a read-only link to your tax figures, ledger and receipts, or invite them to a read-only seat with a login of their own. Neither lets them change anything. If they are going to send your Making Tax Digital updates or your tax return, they also need your authorisation with HMRC: they request it from their agent services account and you accept it in your HMRC account. In LetCompliance the accountant link is on every plan, and Professional, £49 a month includes up to three read-only seats.
Not your password
Should I give my accountant my login?
No. A shared login gives your accountant every power you have, including changing and deleting records, and your activity log can no longer tell the two of you apart.
HMRC says the same about its own services: GOV.UK tells taxpayers not to give their sign in details to an agent or anyone else, and tells agents not to sign in with a client’s details.
The ways below give the accountant an access of their own. Each one shows what it was made to show, and each one can be closed without you changing your password.
A read-only link
How do I share my rental figures with my accountant without a login?
Send a read-only link. Your accountant opens it in a browser, picks the tax year and sees your figures without creating an account.
- Make the link, and give it an end dateA link with an end date closes itself, so access does not outlive the job.
- Open it yourself before you send itCheck what your accountant will see: the figures, the entries and the receipts, for the year they will pick.
- Send it to the accountant onlyAnyone holding the link can read it, so make one for each firm rather than forwarding the same one.
- Switch it off when the work is doneSwitching a link off stops it at once, before its end date.
A login of their own
Can my accountant have their own login to my landlord software?
Yes, if the software has read-only seats. Your accountant signs in with their own email address and password, sees your figures but cannot change them, and you remove the seat when the work is done.
- Invite them at the address they sign in withA login of their own means nobody shares a password, and removing one person never locks out another.
- Give them only what the job needsAn accountant needs the tax figures and the receipts. A partner or co-owner may want to see the whole portfolio.
- Keep a record of who lookedEach visit and each download should leave a line in your own activity log.
- Remove the seat when the work endsAccess that outlives the job is the thing to avoid, with a seat as much as with a password.
Accountant
Tax figures, the ledger and receipts
Sees
- SA105 figures for the tax year running now and the five before it
- Every confirmed ledger entry in the words it was recorded with (a description can name who paid), with the receipts attached to it
- The SA105 CSV, the ledger CSV and a receipts pack (PDF) to download
- Which Making Tax Digital updates have been sent
Never sees or does
- Tenant records: tenants’ contact details, their documents or the rent list by tenant
- Anything to change, and no way to connect to HMRC or send anything to it
Viewer
The whole portfolio, read only: for a partner or co-owner
Sees
- Properties, certificates and compliance status
- Rent charges and any arrears, with tenants’ names
- Income, costs and tax figures, with receipts
- Documents to open and download, tenancy agreements and reference reports included
Never sees or does
- Right to Rent copies
- Tenants’ email addresses or phone numbers from their records (a document such as a tenancy agreement still shows what is written in it)
- Anything to change, and no way to connect to HMRC or send anything to it
Making Tax Digital
How does my accountant send my Making Tax Digital updates for me?
Your accountant asks HMRC to authorise them as your agent, and you accept the request in your own HMRC account. Access to your software does not make them your agent with HMRC; the authorisation does.
- Your accountant sends an authorisation requestThey use their HMRC agent services account to ask you to authorise them, as your main agent or as a supporting agent. You see what each one can do before you agree.GOV.UK, Choose agents for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
- You accept it within 21 daysHMRC’s email has a link: select it and sign in with the details you use for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. The link expires after 21 days, and then your accountant has to send another.GOV.UK, Authorise an agent for taxes that use the digital handshake
- Main agent or supporting agentA main agent can do almost everything you can, including submitting your tax return. A supporting agent, such as a bookkeeper, can send quarterly updates but cannot submit the tax return or see your tax calculation. You can have one main agent and any number of supporting agents.GOV.UK, Choose agents for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
- Agree who sends whatWhere more than one agent works on the same business, one combined update has to reach HMRC for each period, and one tax return after any adjustments. All your UK property income counts as one business.GOV.UK, Choose agents for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
- You stay responsibleYou are responsible for your own tax affairs even with an agent, so check your tax return before your agent submits it.GOV.UK, Authorise an agent for taxes that use the digital handshake
The Making Tax Digital guide covers the thresholds, the quarterly deadlines and what LetCompliance sends to HMRC.
Side by side
Which way does what
The read-only routes let your accountant look. HMRC agent authorisation is what lets them send to HMRC for you.
Read-only link
- Who sets it up
- You, in Settings
- Login
- None: the link opens in a browser
- What it shows
- SA105 figures, the ledger, receipts and the Making Tax Digital updates sent
- What it can change
- Nothing
- Sends to HMRC
- No
- How it ends
- After 30, 90 or 180 days, or when you switch it off
- Where
- Every plan
Read-only seat
- Who sets it up
- You, by email invitation from Settings
- Login
- Their own LetCompliance login
- What it shows
- As an accountant: the tax figures, ledger and receipts. As a viewer: the whole portfolio, read only
- What it can change
- Nothing
- Sends to HMRC
- No
- How it ends
- When you remove the seat
- Where
- Professional, £49 a month
HMRC agent authorisation
- Who sets it up
- Your accountant, from their HMRC agent services account
- Login
- Your own HMRC sign in, to accept the request
- What it shows
- What HMRC holds for Making Tax Digital: more as a main agent, your business and property income as a supporting agent
- What it can change
- Not your LetCompliance records
- Sends to HMRC
- Yes: quarterly updates, and the tax return as your main agent
- How it ends
- When you remove the agent in your HMRC tax account
- Where
- HMRC’s own service
FAQs
What landlords ask about accountant access
Can my accountant see my tenants’ personal details?
Not through the accountant link or the accountant seat. Neither opens tenant records: tenants’ contact details, their documents or the rent list by tenant. A ledger entry keeps the words it was recorded with, so a description can name who paid. A viewer seat, meant for a partner or co-owner, does show tenants’ names against the rent and can open documents such as tenancy agreements, but never Right to Rent copies.
How long does the accountant link last?
30, 90 or 180 days, chosen when you make it, and you can switch it off sooner from Settings. Up to 10 links can work at once, so a second firm can have its own.
Can my accountant change anything or submit to HMRC from LetCompliance?
No. The accountant link and the read-only seats are read only, and connecting to HMRC or sending anything to it stays with you. An accountant who files for you does it as your HMRC agent, from their own software.
Does my accountant need HMRC authorisation to see my records?
No. To see your records in LetCompliance they need the link you send them. HMRC authorisation as your agent is for sending your Making Tax Digital updates or your tax return: they request it from their agent services account and you accept it in your HMRC account within 21 days.
What does the accountant see for a property I own jointly or through a company?
Your share. The figures for a jointly owned property are your share of it, and each entry shows the whole amount beside your share. A property marked as held in a limited company, or as not in your tax return, is named on the page and left out of the figures, because its rent does not go on your return.
Is the accountant link on every plan?
The accountant link is on every plan, from £7.99 a month, and on the free plan for its one property. Read-only seats are on Professional, £49 a month.
Some properties in a limited company and some in your own name? The guide to keeping company and personal property records apart covers which return each one goes on.
Plans from £7.99 a month
Give your accountant the figures, not your password
The accountant link is on every plan. Professional, £49 a month, includes up to three read-only seats: your accountant, a partner or anyone else who needs to see the portfolio, each with their own login. 14-day trial.
Sources
- GOV.UK: Choose agents for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
- GOV.UK: Authorise an agent for taxes that use the digital handshake
- GOV.UK: Create digital records (Making Tax Digital for Income Tax)
- GOV.UK: Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
General information about the HMRC services named, not tax advice. Last reviewed 1 October 2026.
