Making Tax Digital for Landlords, Free Software and What You Need to Know

If you earn rental income from UK property and your total income exceeds £50,000, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to you from 6 April 2026.

This guide covers what landlords need to know, what changes, and how to submit your quarterly updates without switching to expensive accounting software.

Who is affected?

You need to comply with MTD if:

• You receive rental income from UK property
• Your qualifying income (self-employment and/or UK property income, before expenses) exceeds £50,000. Employment (PAYE) and pension income do not count towards this threshold.

This threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028.

What do landlords need to submit?

Four quarterly updates per year, each containing:

• Rental income, your total rent received for the period
• Expenses, your total allowable expenses (repairs, insurance, agent fees, etc.)
• Other income, insurance payouts, grants, etc. (usually zero)

These are cumulative year-to-date figures, not just the quarter's numbers.

What expenses can landlords claim?

Common allowable expenses for landlords include:

• Letting agent fees and management costs
• Repairs and maintenance (not improvements)
• Insurance premiums
• Ground rent and service charges
• Accountancy fees
• Travel to properties for maintenance
• Advertising for tenants

Note: for residential landlords, mortgage interest isn't an ordinary allowable expense. Under MTD it must be reported to HMRC separately in your quarterly updates (as a residential finance cost), with the related 20% tax reducer calculated at year-end. flonancial's simplified quarterly flow doesn't support that separate finance-cost field yet, so if you have a mortgage on a let property you'll need a fuller MTD product for that business.

Do I need special software?

You need HMRC-compatible software to submit your updates. But you don't need a full property management platform. If you already track your rental income and expenses in a spreadsheet, bridging software like flonancial will submit your figures to HMRC for free.

What about jointly-owned property?

If you own property jointly (for example with a spouse), each owner submits their own MTD updates for their share of the income and expenses. You'll each need your own flonancial account connected to your own HMRC Government Gateway.

Multiple properties

All your UK rental properties are treated as a single property business by HMRC. You submit one set of figures covering all your properties combined, you don't need to file separately for each property.

Getting started

flonancial supports UK property businesses and is free for individual landlords. Upload your rental spreadsheet, pick the cells with your totals, and submit to HMRC in minutes.