Landlord income and expenses spreadsheet. In the SA105 boxes and the quarterly update categories.

Not on its own. A spreadsheet cannot send the quarterly updates to HMRC, so once Making Tax Digital applies the records have to be kept with software that can. The Income Tax (Digital Obligations) Regulations 2026 allow a set of programs joined so that nothing is recorded twice, and GOV.UK counts importing a CSV file as a digital link. Copying figures across by hand, or typing them in again, does not count.

Yes, if it is joined to software that sends the updates by a digital link, such as a CSV import, and the records are never retyped. The spreadsheet holds the records; the software sends the quarterly totals and the tax return. To keep the records in the software itself instead, LetCompliance records rent, costs and statement lines in the same categories and sends the updates from them, on every paid plan from £7.99 a month.

Box 24 for rent, rates, insurance and ground rents, council tax and water rates included; box 25 for repairs and maintenance; box 26 for non-residential property finance costs; box 27 for legal, management and other professional fees, a letting agent’s fees among them; box 28 for the cost of services you provide, such as cleaning or gardening; and box 29 for other allowable expenses, travel among them. Rent and other property income go in box 20. The Categories tab lists each category with its box.

Not among the expenses. For a residential let only the interest counts, and it goes in box 44, residential property finance costs, where it is used to work out a reduction in Income Tax rather than taken off the rent. Capital repayments are never claimed. The workbook keeps mortgage interest in a category of its own, so it never reaches the box 24 to 29 totals.

Yes, in box 36, the costs of replacing domestic items, where the new item is for the tenant’s use and the old one is no longer available. The first one bought for the let cannot be claimed there, and where the new item is an improvement, only the cost of a like-for-like replacement counts. The workbook files these under Replacing furniture / appliances, and box 36 goes in at the end of the year, not in the quarterly updates.

Enter your share of each property on the Properties tab, 50 for half, and every total is worked out at your share. For a jointly let property, GOV.UK says your quarterly updates can include property income only; the expenses are then sent after the end of the tax year, by sending the fourth update again before your tax return. Properties you own on your own still need their income and expenses in every update.

Up to £1,000 of property income is covered by the property income allowance. If you claim it, you cannot deduct any allowable expenses or claim any other allowances on that income, so it suits a landlord whose costs are small. The workbook records every cost either way, so you can see which gives the lower figure.

No, but a landlord can use it while their UK property income is up to £150,000. It is also the way this workbook counts: money is recorded when it is received or paid. If you use traditional accounting instead, you put an X in box 20.2 and count income and costs in the period they relate to, which this workbook does not do.

In two steps. Upload the workbook itself on the property import page: it opens the Properties tab and reads the address, town, postcode and your share, on every plan. Then open the Transactions tab, save it as CSV (Excel saves only the tab that is open) and upload that file on Bank statements, on the 3-day trial and paid plans. Each line is filed to a property and a category there, by a payee rule or by hand, and nothing is recorded until you confirm it.