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Making Tax Digital for landlords 2026: what records you need

Last checked 15 Oct 2026 against the GOV.UK pages linked below. Items marked date-sensitive can change; follow the source links before relying on them.

From 6 April 2026, landlords with over £50,000 of qualifying income have to keep digital records and send quarterly updates. Here's exactly what HMRC expects you to record, the shortcuts it allows, and the mistakes that trip spreadsheet users up.

Do you need to use MTD yet? date-sensitive

MTD for Income Tax applies to landlords and sole traders registered for Self Assessment whose qualifying income (gross self-employment plus property income, before expenses) is over the threshold for a given year:

HMRC checks your tax return and writes to you, but GOV.UK is clear that if no letter arrives it's still your responsibility to check. Source: GOV.UK: Find out if and when you need to use MTD for Income Tax.

Note the word gross: a landlord with £52,000 of rent and £30,000 of costs is over £50,000 and in MTD now.

What counts as a "digital record"

GOV.UK defines it as a record of income or expense "created and stored using software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax". A spreadsheet counts, as long as it's digitally linked to the software that sends your updates (often called bridging software). Paper books and a shoebox of receipts don't.

Every record needs three things:

1. Amount
2. Date the income was received or the expense incurred
3. Category, using the same income and expense categories as Self Assessment (the SA105 property pages)

HMRC never sees the individual records, only the category totals in each quarterly update. Source: GOV.UK: Create digital records.

The records a landlord must keep digitally

• Property income: rent, premiums for the grant of a lease, reverse premiums and inducements.
• Property expenses: repairs and maintenance, letting and management fees, insurance, ground rent and service charges, utilities you pay, legal and professional costs, travel, and so on.
• Mortgage interest separately. For residential lets this is a restricted finance cost (Section 24): it isn't deducted from profit; it gets a 20% tax reduction instead. GOV.UK lets you record a mortgage payment either as interest only, or as the full payment and adjust before your return.

All your UK properties are legally one "UK property business", so you don't need separate records per property, although keeping the property on each line makes it far easier to see which one actually makes money. Foreign property is different: separate records per property, combined into one foreign property update.

Want this set up already? The UK Landlord MTD Record Keeper (£14, Excel & Google Sheets) has HMRC category dropdowns, a separate finance-cost line and per-property profit.

Simplifications GOV.UK allows

Turnover under £90,000: simpler categories

If your total UK property turnover is under £90,000 you may categorise in less detail. But residential landlords still have to record, for each transaction, whether it's income or expense and whether an expense is a restricted finance cost. If turnover then reaches £90,000 you must recategorise everything from the start of the tax year in full, so if you're close, categorise fully from day one.

Jointly let property

• You only record your share of income and expenses, and you don't need to link records with your co-owner.
• You can create one record per income category per update period (e.g. £3,000 for the quarter instead of three £1,000 rents) and one per expense category per year.
• You can leave joint-property expenses out of the quarterly updates and add them by resending the fourth update after the year ends. Properties you own outright still need expenses in every update.

Disallowable and part-capital items

You don't have to record purely personal costs. For mixed items you can record just the allowable part, or the total plus the disallowable part, or the total and adjust the category later. Capital spending such as an extension isn't a revenue expense; record it separately or leave it out.

When records must be made

A record must exist before you send the quarterly update that covers it, and at the latest by that update's deadline. Rent received on 30 April 2026 has to be recorded before your first update or 7 August 2026, whichever comes first. GOV.UK recommends recording as close to the transaction as possible. If you signed up partway through the year, you catch up from 6 April. Full dates are in our 2026/27 deadlines guide.

Linking a spreadsheet properly

If you keep records in a spreadsheet and send through other software, the two must be digitally linked: linked cells, CSV/XML import, emailing the file for import, or an API. What's not allowed once a record has been sent: retyping figures into another cell or program, or copy-and-paste. Find bridging software on GOV.UK: Find software for MTD for Income Tax; some products are free.

Keep the paperwork too

Digital records don't replace your evidence. Keep bank statements, invoices and receipts as for Self Assessment, and keep digital records for at least 5 years after the 31 January deadline for the tax year.

Checklist

• Confirm whether and when you're in, using GOV.UK's checker
• Choose software: all-in-one, or spreadsheet plus bridging software
• One line per transaction: date, amount, property, SA105 category
• Mortgage interest on its own line, never in expenses
• Only your share for joint lets
• Capital items kept out of revenue expenses
• Receipts and statements kept for 5+ years

Sources

• GOV.UK: Send quarterly updates
• GOV.UK: Create digital records
• GOV.UK: Find out if and when you need to use MTD for Income Tax
• GOV.UK: Find software for MTD for Income Tax

Related

• UK Landlord MTD Record Keeper 2026/27: Excel & Google Sheets, cumulative quarterly figures, SA105 helper (£14)
• Making Tax Digital for landlords 2026: what records you need
• MTD quarterly update deadlines 2026/27

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