Making Tax Digital for landlords. From £7.99 a month.

You do if you are a sole trader or landlord whose qualifying income is over £50,000 on your 2024 to 2025 tax return (from 6 April 2026), over £30,000 on your 2025 to 2026 return (from 6 April 2027), or over £20,000 on your 2026 to 2027 return (from 6 April 2028). Qualifying income is your self-employment and property income before expenses, and for jointly owned property only your share counts. GOV.UK’s guidance “Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax” explains the exemptions.

It depends on income, not on the number of properties. One property you own alone, with rent over £30,000 on your 2025 to 2026 return, brings you in from 6 April 2027. If you own it with someone else, only your share counts.

No. Qualifying income is counted before expenses, and the agent’s fee is an expense, so HMRC looks at the full rent the agent collected. Record the full rent as income and the fee as a cost. Using an agent does not move Making Tax Digital off you: the obligation is still yours.

HMRC is signing up people who need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and writing to them, but it asks you to check even if no letter arrives. You can also sign up yourself on GOV.UK. You need to be registered for Self Assessment and to have filed a return in the last 2 years, and you should choose your software before you sign up.

On standard update periods the updates cover 6 April to 5 July, 5 October, 5 January and 5 April, and are due by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. Each update is cumulative from the start of the tax year, and you still send one if nothing came in or went out. Calendar update periods start on 1 April and end on 30 June, 30 September, 31 December and 31 March, with the same deadlines. Your tax return is due by 31 January after the tax year.

There are no penalties for missing a quarterly update deadline in the 2026 to 2027 tax year, but you still need to send all four before you can submit your tax return. From 2027 to 2028, each missed quarterly deadline earns a penalty point, and so does a late tax return, including the one for 2026 to 2027. At 4 points you pay a £200 penalty, then £200 for each further missed deadline. Late payment has its own penalties: in your first year you have 30 days from the due date to pay or set up a payment plan before they start, and 15 days after that.

No. Your tax return is still your Self Assessment return, sent through software instead of HMRC’s online form. If you start Making Tax Digital in April 2026, you file your 2025 to 2026 return the usual way, and your 2026 to 2027 return is the first one sent through software, by 31 January 2028.

Yes, if the spreadsheet is digitally linked to bridging software that sends the updates, with no figures copied or retyped along the way. Paper records on their own are not enough. In LetCompliance you keep the records in the account itself, so no spreadsheet or bridging software is needed.

If your UK property turnover is under £90,000 you can use simpler categories. A landlord with residential property still records each item as income or an expense and marks any restricted finance cost, such as mortgage interest, separately. LetCompliance files each cost in HMRC’s categories as you add it, with mortgage interest on a residential let kept as a residential finance cost.

Your share of the rent and your share of each cost. HMRC treats each owner’s share separately, so each of you keeps your own records and connects your own HMRC account. Married couples and civil partners who live together are normally taxed on an even split, unless they have told HMRC otherwise on Form 17. In LetCompliance you enter the full rent and costs and set your share on the property; your updates then use your share. If you already enter only your share, leave it at 100%.

Not to those properties. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is for sole traders and landlords who do Self Assessment, so rent that belongs to a company is outside it. If you also hold property personally, that income counts towards your qualifying income.

Yes. LetCompliance is on GOV.UK’s list of software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, as software for individuals with UK property income: it creates your digital records, sends your quarterly updates and, when UK property is the only income you need to add yourself, submits your tax return. HMRC does not recommend any one product, and the listing shows what each covers.

Yes. You connect your HMRC account once, check each update and send it from LetCompliance. Every update is kept with the figures HMRC received, the date and HMRC’s reference. Updates cover UK property income for individuals on the cash basis.

Yes, when UK property is the only income you need to add yourself. HMRC adds information it already holds, such as employment and pension income. If you also have savings interest, dividends, self-employment, foreign property or partnership income, or need to claim property losses from an earlier year, keep sending your quarterly updates here and file your tax return with software that can add the rest. LetCompliance asks before anything is sent.

Yes, if UK property is the only income you need to add yourself. HMRC adds information it already holds to your tax return, including employment (PAYE) income, pensions and other taxable state benefits. Savings interest, dividends and partnership profits are yours to add, so a tax return with any of those is finished in software that covers them.

You need to be signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, the Government Gateway ID you use for Self Assessment and your National Insurance number. Until you are signed up, HMRC refuses the connection whichever software you use.

Yes. Once your HMRC account is connected, LetCompliance asks HMRC what it already holds for the tax year, so a quarter sent elsewhere shows as sent. Updates are running totals, so the next one you send from here covers the whole year so far.

Correct the record in LetCompliance. Each update covers the tax year to date, so the next update carries the correction without resending earlier ones. If you change a record after your last update, saving your year end sends that update again, and you can amend your tax return after submitting it.

You choose once for the year when you save your year end, and LetCompliance shows the profit each way gives side by side, worked out from your records. The property allowance and Rent-a-Room relief cannot be claimed alongside expenses. If you are unsure, GOV.UK’s guidance on working out your rental income or your accountant can help.

Every one of the 128 products HMRC lists for UK property income sends quarterly updates, but not every one shows the tax return as ready. On 6 October 2026, HMRC’s list showed it as ready now for 84 of them. LetCompliance can send it when UK property is the only income you need to add yourself.

Yes, some recognised products have a free plan, but check what it sends to HMRC: some charge for each submission and some keep Making Tax Digital for paid plans. LetCompliance’s Making Tax Digital is on every paid plan, from £7.99 a month for one property, with rent collection, your tax return figures (SA105) and mortgage interest relief (Section 24) alongside the quarterly updates and, when UK property is the only income you add yourself, your tax return. It is on GOV.UK’s list of software recognised by HMRC. GOV.UK’s software finder lists every recognised product and what it covers.

Yes, if they use agent software for Making Tax Digital: your accountant can sign you up and send the updates from their own software. LetCompliance is software for individuals rather than agents, so from LetCompliance you send them yourself. If your accountant sends them, they can import your records from a CSV export, which counts as a digital link, where copying and pasting figures does not. Each submission comes from one product, so agree who sends which update before the deadline.

For each item of income and each expense: the amount, the date it was received or paid, and its category, using the same categories as Self Assessment. Record only your share of a jointly let property. Each record has to exist before you send the quarterly update that covers it, and if you sign up part-way through a year you catch up from the start of that tax year. You still keep the originals, such as invoices and bank statements. In LetCompliance each rent payment, receipt and journey is filed against its property in HMRC’s categories as you add it.

Making Tax Digital is on every paid plan, with the income and expense records, bank statement import and mileage log behind it. Single is £7.99 a month for one property and Solo £14.99 for up to 3, both with your tax return figures (SA105) and mortgage interest relief (Section 24). Making Tax Digital starts when you choose a plan; the 3-day trial covers the rest of the let.

You do not have to have one to use Making Tax Digital. If you work with an accountant, they can review the same figures you send, and you can export your quarterly records as a CSV file.