REMEZ & PARTNERS

Making Tax Digital for landlords

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to landlords by qualifying income from property and self-employment combined: £50,000 from 6 April 2026, £30,000 from 6 April 2027, £20,000 from 6 April 2028. It means digital records and quarterly updates to HMRC rather than one annual return. Each threshold is measured on the tax year two years before the phase begins.

The change is not to the tax. It is to the bookkeeping — from one annual reckoning to a quarterly rhythm, and from a notebook to software. For landlords who reconstruct the year each January, that is a bigger adjustment than it sounds.

The threshold is not what most people assume

Two things catch landlords out, and both are in the definition rather than the rules.

It is gross qualifying income, and it combines sources. Property and self-employment are added together. £22,000 of rent alongside £35,000 of freelance work is £57,000 of qualifying income — inside phase one, even though neither source would have been.

It is measured two years back. Phase one is decided on 2024/25, phase two on 2025/26. By the time a phase begins, the year that put you in it is already filed. There is no adjusting it after the fact.

What quarterly updates actually involve

Summary totals of income and expenses, sent from compatible software four times a year, plus a year-end process that finalises everything the quarterly updates do not cover — other income, reliefs, adjustments.

What does not change: the tax calculation, and when you pay it. The payment dates remain31 January and 31 July. Nobody is being asked for tax four times a year.

Get the records in order before it applies

Clients on a monthly or quarterly service are compliant by construction — the records exist as they go rather than being assembled in January. If MTD is coming for you in April, the useful year to sort it is the one before.

Or send an email

Free assessment first. If there is work to do, you get a fixed quote in writing before anything starts.

What to do now

  1. Work out which phase you are in, using the right measurement year and your combined income.
  2. Separate the property money into its own account if it is not already. Everything downstream gets cheaper.
  3. Start keeping records digitally before you have to, so the first mandatory quarter is not also the first attempt.
  4. Check what else is changing — if you are also letting from abroad, or your costs have never been claimed properly, that is worth fixing in the same pass.

The landlords who will find this painful are the ones who currently hand over a carrier bag in January. The change is not the tax; it is that the carrier bag stops working.

Questions people ask

When does MTD apply to me?

It phases in by qualifying income: from 6 April 2026 if you were over £50,000 in 2024/25, from 6 April 2027 if you were over £30,000 in 2025/26, from 6 April 2028 if you were over £20,000 in 2026/27. Note the year each threshold is measured on — it is two years before the phase starts, so the decision has already been made by the time it applies to you.

What counts as qualifying income?

Income from self-employment and property, combined. A landlord with £20,000 of rent and £35,000 of freelance income is assessed on the total, not on either separately — which catches people who assume the property alone is too small to matter.

What actually changes?

Digital record-keeping, and quarterly updates to HMRC instead of one annual return. The tax is not calculated quarterly and the payment dates do not move — what changes is the bookkeeping rhythm.

Do I still file a tax return?

There is still a year-end process that finalises the position and brings in anything outside the quarterly updates — other income, reliefs, adjustments. The quarterly updates do not replace it; they sit in front of it.

I keep records in a notebook. Is that still allowed?

Not once MTD applies to you: records have to be kept digitally and submitted through compatible software. For landlords with one or two properties this is the substantive change — not the tax, the tooling.

What if I am below the threshold?

Nothing changes for now, but the thresholds are falling: £50,000, then £30,000, then £20,000. Most landlords who are out today are in within a few years, which makes the transition a matter of timing rather than of whether.

Figures are for the tax year shown and change every April. They are general information, not advice — we check the current position for your circumstances before anything is filed.

Reviewed 19 October 2026.

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