More than 259,000 landlords will need to sign up for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for the 2026/2027 tax year, the government has revealed.

New figures show the total number of people with any property income with a turnover of more than £50,000 affected by MTD for Income Tax include 118,000 whose only source of qualifying income is property rental, and 141,000 who have both self-employment income and property income, such as a builder who also rents out a property.

It reveals that 864,000 people must start using compatible software to keep digital records, send four simple quarterly updates of their income and expenses and submit their tax return to HMRC. So far, about 100,000 sole traders and landlords have already signed up, with more than 15,000 quarterly updates successfully submitted through a voluntary testing programme - although the government doesn’t have figures on how many of these are landlords.

Income

Barry Soraff, partner at Xeinadin (pictured), tells LandlordZONE: “From what I’ve seen, most people affected are doing something. I suspect the difference are the self-employed/landlords with gross income below £50,000.”

For most, the first quarterly update under MTD for Income Tax will cover the period from 6th April to 5th July which needs to be submitted by 7th August. Landlords will have to sign up by this first submission date and start keeping digital records and using the MTD-compatible software from 6^th April. Most will receive a letter from HMRC confirming they need to join.

Simple

Craig Ogilvie, director of Making Tax Digital, explains: “The quarterly updates aren’t tax returns – they’re simple summaries your software auto-populates, spreading the admin throughout the year, rather than leaving it all towards the January Self-Assessment deadline.”

Those joining MTD for Income Tax in April will still file their Self-Assessment return for the 2025/2026 tax year in the usual way by 31st January 2027. The first tax return submitted using MTD compatible software covering 2026/2027 will be due by 31st January 2028.

Find the government guide here.

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