Making Tax Digital for Landlords: What to Do Before April 2026

From April 2026, landlords with rental income over £50,000 must submit quarterly updates to HMRC using compatible software. The window to prepare is now.

Illustration of rental properties with digital tax submission interface

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax starts on 6 April 2026 for the first wave of landlords. If you let property with gross rental income over £50,000 in the 2024/25 tax year, this is a legal obligation, not an option. The penalty regime for failure to comply is already published. There are five months left to get the software, the process and the record-keeping right.

Who is in scope, and when

HMRC has staged the rollout by income band:

The threshold is combined, not per source. A landlord earning £28,000 of rent with a £24,000 freelance consultancy income is in scope from 6 April 2026 even though neither figure crosses £50,000 on its own.

Partnerships, companies and the furnished holiday let regime are either excluded or follow different timetables.

What you will actually do, every quarter

Four quarterly updates, each due one month after the quarter end:

Each update is a summary — total rental income and total allowable expenses for the quarter — not a line-by-line transaction listing. The figures are cumulative, so a correction in a later quarter overwrites the earlier one. No separate amendment process.

After the final quarter you submit a final declaration by 31 January following the tax year end. This confirms the figures, adds anything not in the quarterly updates (dividends, interest, employment income, capital gains), and triggers the tax calculation. The payment deadline — 31 January and 31 July for payments on account — is unchanged.

Software: what counts

Under MTD, your records must be kept digitally and the submission to HMRC must be digital. HMRC maintains a list of compatible software; the big names include Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, Hammock (landlord-focused) and Sage. Spreadsheets are allowed if they feed into HMRC via bridging software — you cannot hand-type figures from a spreadsheet into HMRC's portal.

Most landlords with a small portfolio will do well with Hammock or FreeAgent (free for Mettle, Starling and some Barclays business account holders). Property-management platforms like Arthur integrate with these.

Penalties under the new regime

HMRC has introduced a points-based system. One missed deadline costs you a point. Four points in a 12-month period triggers a £200 penalty, with a further £200 for every subsequent miss until you achieve a clean compliance window. The regime is less punitive than the old automatic £100 charges for a single late filing, but it penalises serial lateness more aggressively.

Late payment interest and surcharges are also unchanged — the digital filing requirement tightens the record-keeping, not the payment deadlines.

What to do now

  1. Confirm whether you are in scope from April 2026, April 2027 or April 2028. Use your 2024/25 figures.
  2. If April 2026 applies, choose software and get it set up before January so you have one quarter of practice before the real one counts.
  3. Separate business and personal bank accounts if you have not already. Mixed accounts are allowed but create reconciliation pain every quarter.
  4. Decide whether you will handle quarterly updates yourself or appoint an agent. An accountant can submit on your behalf — many landlords find the quarterly admin outweighs the cost difference.

Getting help with this

AJH Accountants handles landlord accounting including MTD submissions for clients across the UK. We file the return, tell you what you can claim, and deal with HMRC on your behalf, so nothing depends on you remembering a deadline.

See how our landlord accounting including MTD submissions service works, or send us a quotation request and we will call you back. You can also call the office on 01204 840303.

Originally published at ajhaccountant.co.uk/blog/mtd-for-landlords-april-2026-what-to-do.