Signing up as
a landlord

Landlords are signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax in exactly the same way as sole traders: the same service, the same two conditions and the same deadlines. What differs is how your property income is counted, how many businesses HMRC sees, and what you report for property you own with someone else. Getting those right at sign-up saves trouble later, because each quarterly update is sent against a specific business.

This guide covers the property-specific parts. For the sign-up service itself, see how to sign up. Everything here comes from GOV.UK's guidance on qualifying income, digital records and income sources.

“If you have one or more properties in the UK, they are legally treated as one 'UK property business' and you do not need to create separate digital records for each UK property that you have.”

Does Making Tax Digital apply to you?

Your qualifying income is your total income from self-employment and property, before expenses, taken from the tax return you submitted for the previous year. For a landlord that means the gross rent received, not the profit after mortgage interest, repairs and agent fees. GOV.UK's own example adds £25,000 of rent to £27,000 of self-employment income to give qualifying income of £52,000.

Some property income does not count: GOV.UK says income from REITs and PAIFs does not count towards qualifying income. HMRC has said turnover is measured before any tax allowances or expenses, so claiming the £1,000 property allowance does not bring your gross rent under a threshold. The MTD requirement checker adds up your figures for you, and the rental income calculator estimates the tax on them.

How HMRC counts your property businesses

This is the part most landlords get wrong at first.

UK property is one business. All your UK properties are legally treated as one UK property business. You do not need separate digital records for each UK property, and your share of any jointly let UK property is part of the same business.

Foreign property is another. All your overseas properties together are one foreign property business. Here GOV.UK asks for separate digital records for each individual foreign property and for your share of any jointly let one, but your software adds them together into one quarterly update.

A sole trade is separate again. If you also run a trade, that is its own business with its own updates. A landlord with UK lets, a flat abroad and a sole trade has three businesses and sends three sets of quarterly updates, all due on the same dates.

Two rules about changes follow from this. Starting to let another UK property is not a new income source, because it joins your existing UK property business. And stopping one UK let while you still let others does not need to be reported to HMRC, because the business continues.

How many property businesses a landlord has

• Three UK lets1 business
• Three UK lets and one flat in Spain2 businesses
• UK lets, a flat abroad and a sole trade3 businesses

What the sign-up service asks a landlord

The sign-up service asks you to tell HMRC about your self-employment and property income, including any that has stopped since your last tax return. For each source you need the date you started receiving property income, if that was within the last 2 tax years, and confirmation of the tax year you will start. The business name, address and trade questions are for sole traders. If you have more than one property business, check each one in the service and add any that are missing.

If HMRC has signed you up itself, its guidance asks you to confirm your self-employment and property income details, including any UK and overseas properties, bearing in mind that all your UK properties are one UK property business and all your foreign properties one foreign property business. What to do when HMRC signs you up covers the rest.

Joint owners

If you own a let property with someone else, three rules apply.

1. Only your share counts towards your qualifying income. HMRC's example is a property earning £50,000 split equally between two owners: each has qualifying income of £25,000 from it. If you only learn your share of the income after expenses, HMRC assesses that figure instead.
2. You keep records only for your share. You do not need to link your digital records to the other owner's.
3. You choose what goes in your quarterly updates. For jointly let properties you can include property income and expenses, or property income only. If you leave the expenses out, you report them after the end of the tax year by resending your fourth quarterly update before you submit your tax return.

Each joint owner is tested and signed up on their own. One owner can be inside Making Tax Digital while the other is not.

Furnished holiday lets, Rent-a-Room and residential detail

Furnished holiday lets. UK furnished holiday lettings income has been part of the UK property business since April 2025, and the old rule that stopped furnished holiday let owners volunteering was removed from the sign-up guidance on 6 April 2025.

Rent-a-Room. You create digital records of Rent-a-Room income, and the relief is then applied automatically if you used it for your home and also had other UK property income on your last return, or if your gross income from the room was over the Rent-a-Room threshold on your last return.

Residential property. For UK residential property, GOV.UK asks for more detail on expenses even below the simpler-categorisation threshold: record whether each transaction is income or an expense and, if an expense, whether it is a restricted finance cost such as mortgage interest.

Non-resident landlords

If you were not UK tax resident, your qualifying income includes your UK property income and any self-employment income declared on your UK Self Assessment return. Foreign property and self-employment income not declared on your UK return does not count. For UK residents it is the other way round: a UK sole trader who also lets a property in France counts both.

Starting or stopping a property business

Because all your UK lets are one business, most changes to your portfolio are not changes HMRC needs to hear about. A new UK let joins the existing business, and selling one of several UK lets leaves the business running.

It is different when a whole business starts or stops:

• Your first UK let, or your first let abroad, is a new income source. You add it in your HMRC online account, which GOV.UK says lets you add a new sole trader or property business in the UK or overseas.
• Your last UK let, or your last let abroad, ends that business. GOV.UK says you must tell HMRC by the quarterly update deadline for the period the income stopped, send the final quarterly update for the period that includes the date it ceased, and still include the ceased income in your tax return for that year, using your Making Tax Digital software.

If all your self-employment and property income has stopped since your last tax return, GOV.UK says to tell HMRC before the start of the next tax year; otherwise you will need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. HMRC then updates your records and writes to confirm you will not need to use it.

Letting agents

Many landlords never see their gross rent: the agent collects it, takes fees and pays repairs, and sends on the balance with a statement. Your digital records still need the full picture. Record the rent the agent collected as income, and the agent's fees and anything they paid on your behalf as expenses, each with its date, from the agent's statement rather than your bank account. A bank feed alone shows only the net payment, and GOV.UK warns that some transactions may not appear in full in a bank feed and need to be created separately, and that it is your responsibility to check your records are accurate before you send an update.

If the agent can give you statements as a spreadsheet or PDF, keep them with your records for each quarter.

Before your first update

Three checks for landlords once you are signed up:

• Software that handles property. GOV.UK suggests checking that the software supports all your income sources. Some products cover sole traders only, and you can use only one product for each separate submission, so a landlord cannot split property updates between two products. The HMRC software directory shows which products cover UK and foreign property.
• Update periods. Software defaults to standard periods ending on the 5th. If your property accounts run from 1 April to 31 March, select calendar update periods in your software before your first update; you cannot change them for that year afterwards.
• Records from the start of the year. Rent, agent statements, repairs, insurance and finance costs from 6 April. If your rent arrives through a letting agent, record the gross rent and the agent's fees and deductions separately, not just the net amount that reaches your bank.

TapTax sends quarterly updates for UK and foreign property businesses alongside a sole trade's, from one account, and shows which updates HMRC is still waiting for. The Making Tax Digital for landlords guide covers allowable property expenses and the mortgage interest rules, and the deadlines page has every date.