Making Tax Digital for landlords: the complete guide

This page is the whole picture in one place. What it is, whether it applies to you and when, what you will actually have to do, the deadlines, what stays exactly the same, and the software you need. Each section links to a deeper guide if you want more on one part.

What Making Tax Digital for landlords is

Making Tax Digital, usually shortened to MTD, is HMRC's programme to move tax reporting online. The part that affects landlords is Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. If your income is over the threshold, you keep your records digitally in compatible software, send HMRC a quarterly update from that software, and then submit a final declaration after the tax year ends.

The quarterly update is not a tax bill and it is not a full return. It is a running total of your rental income and expenses for the year so far, sent straight from your software. You do this four times a year. At the end you confirm the figures, add anything else (your other income, reliefs, allowances), and submit the final declaration. That final declaration is the thing that replaces your annual Self Assessment return.

So the shape of the year changes from one big task in January to a handful of smaller ones spread across the year. The numbers you report are the same numbers you would have reported anyway. For more on the mechanics and the language HMRC uses, read what Making Tax Digital is.

Is it actually here yet

Yes. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is live. It started on 6 April 2026 for the first wave of landlords and sole traders, those with gross income over £50,000.

For years this was talked about as something coming in future, and the start date moved more than once, so it is fair to be unsure. That phase is over. If you are in the first wave, you are reporting under MTD now, for the 2026/27 tax year. If you are not yet caught, you have a known date when you will be, and you can see exactly when below.

Am I in, and when

Whether MTD applies to you depends on your qualifying income, and it is being introduced in three waves. Your qualifying income is your gross income (the total before you take off any expenses) from two sources only: UK property and self-employment. It is not your profit. HMRC looks at the income on your most recent tax return to decide which wave you fall into.

This is the point most landlords get wrong, so it is worth being precise. A landlord taking £55,000 in rent with £20,000 of costs has a profit of £35,000, but a qualifying income of £55,000. They are in the first wave, because the threshold is measured before expenses.

Only property and self-employment income count toward the threshold. A salary through PAYE, dividends, a pension, savings or investment income, and (for now) partnership income do not. So you could earn well over £50,000 in total and still sit below the threshold, if most of that comes from a job or investments rather than rent or self-employment.

If you are close to a threshold, or your income comes from more than one source, the quickest way to get a straight answer is the Am I In? calculator. For the detail on who is affected, exemptions, and how joint ownership changes the picture, see who MTD affects.

What you actually have to do

Under MTD there are three jobs across the year.

First, you keep digital records. Every item of rental income and every expense has to be recorded in compatible software, rather than on paper or in your head until January. You do not have to scan every receipt, but the figures themselves have to live in software that can talk to HMRC.

Second, you send a quarterly update. Four times a year, your software sends HMRC a summary of your income and expenses so far. These updates are cumulative: each one runs from 6 April, so the second update includes the first quarter again, and the fourth covers the whole year. They are estimates and you are not locked into them, so a number you correct later is simply caught up at the next update or the final declaration.

Third, you submit a final declaration after the tax year ends. This is where you confirm the year's figures, bring in your other income and any reliefs or allowances, and tell HMRC this is final. The final declaration replaces the Self Assessment return for anyone in MTD. (The separate end-of-period statement that earlier versions of the rules described no longer exists, so there is just the quarterly updates and one final declaration.)

For a step-by-step on signing up, getting your records in order, and sending your first update, see getting ready for MTD.

The deadlines

The quarterly updates are due on the same four dates every year: 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, each one running cumulatively from 6 April. The final declaration is due by 31 January after the tax year, the same date your Self Assessment return used to fall on, so for 2026/27 that is 31 January 2028.

There is one piece of good news for the first wave: the 2026/27 tax year is penalty-free, so late updates this year will not cost you. That makes this the year to build the habit. For the full deadline table, how the cumulative quarterly updates actually work, and the points-based penalty system, see MTD deadlines and quarterly updates.

What it does not change

A lot of the worry around MTD comes from thinking it changes your tax. It does not. MTD changes how and when you report, not how much you owe or when you pay it.

Your payment dates are unchanged. You still pay by 31 January, with payments on account on 31 January and 31 July where they apply. Your tax rates are unchanged. The way rental profit is calculated is unchanged, so allowable expenses, the finance-cost rules and the reliefs you already claim all work exactly as before. MTD is a reporting change sitting on top of the same tax rules.

The software question

MTD only works through compatible software. A spreadsheet on its own will not file an update to HMRC, so you need software that records your income and expenses and sends the updates and final declaration for you. HMRC keeps a list of recognised products, and free MTD software does exist among them. The catch for landlords is that free and generic tools tend to miss the property-specific parts, so free is often a false economy. Provestor is purpose-built for property and is a paid product, not free. The software guide sets out the comparison.

For landlords specifically, the question is not only whether software is recognised, but whether it handles property properly. The things that catch landlords out are jointly owned property (where you only report your share), letting-agent statements (where rent, fees and costs arrive bundled together), and the difference between a repair and an improvement. Software built for general sole traders can technically file your updates while still making the property side harder than it needs to be.

For how to choose, what the free options cover and what landlords should look for, see MTD software for landlords. To see how Provestor handles it, take the MTD tour.

Special cases landlords ask about

A few situations come up again and again.

Joint ownership. If you own a property with someone else, MTD looks at your share of the gross income, not the whole property's. For married couples and civil partners the default split is 50/50 unless you have made a Form 17 election to change it. Because each owner is assessed on their own share, two people who own the same property can land in different waves. There is more on this in who MTD affects.

Limited companies. MTD for Income Tax is for individuals. If you hold your property through a limited company, it is not in scope, and no date has been set for companies. Company landlords carry on filing as they do now.

Mixed property and self-employment. If you have both rental income and a self-employed trade, both count toward your qualifying income, and you report them as separate businesses within MTD. Provestor handles the UK property side; where a self-employed trade affects your threshold, that matters for working out whether you are in, even though it sits outside the property work.

What counts as income. The threshold is measured on gross income from UK property and self-employment only, before any expenses. Salary, dividends, pensions, and savings or investment income do not count toward it.

These are summaries. The FAQs cover the longer tail of questions.

How Provestor handles MTD for landlords

Provestor is built for UK landlords, which means the property nuances above are handled rather than bolted on. There are three ways to comply, depending on how much you want to do yourself.

You can do it yourself in the software, keeping your records and sending your own updates. You can have it assisted, where you keep the records and Provestor's specialists check and submit. Or you can have it done for you, where the records, the quarterly updates and the final declaration are handled on your behalf. Whichever route fits, the property-specific parts, joint ownership, letting-agent feeds and the repair-versus-improvement line, are built in.

Which route is right comes down to how much you want to do yourself.