How do I register for Self Assessment as a landlord?

Use GOV.UK's Check how to register for Self Assessment service, choose "for another reason", and register by 5 October after the first tax year your rent needs a return. For 2026-27 rent, that is 5 October 2027.

This page covers the landlord route. For the general picture, including the sole trader route, see how to register for Self Assessment. It follows GOV.UK as checked on 17 October 2026.

Do you need to register?

GOV.UK says you must report rental income on a Self Assessment tax return if it is more than £2,500 after allowable expenses, or more than £10,000 before them. If it is more than £1,000 but no more than £2,500, contact HMRC. The first £1,000 is tax-free under the property allowance, unless you cannot use it: for example, rent from your employer or a company or partnership connected to you, or claiming the mortgage interest tax reduction. Then tell HMRC even about £1,000 or less.

Letting furnished rooms in your own home is different. Under the Rent a Room Scheme, up to £7,500 a year (£3,750 if shared) is automatically tax-free and needs no action. Over that, you must send a tax return.

If you do not usually send a tax return, you register by 5 October following the tax year you had the rent.

Which route a landlord takes

The GOV.UK service asks two questions: why you need to send a return, and whether you sent one last year.

To register online you sign in, or create sign-in details the first time. You may be asked to prove your identity, usually with photo ID such as a passport or driving licence.

Jointly owned property

Each owner is taxed on their own share. Married couples and civil partners who live together are usually taxed in equal shares. Other joint owners are usually taxed on the share they own, unless they agree a different split. Each owner gets the £1,000 property allowance against their own share of the rent.

In our reading, that means each owner tests the £2,500 and £10,000 limits on their own share, and each owner who is over them registers separately.

What this means for you

Say you and your sister let a flat from July 2026 at £1,100 a month. By 5 April 2027 the flat has taken nine months' rent, £9,900, so your half is £4,950. After your half of the costs, £1,200, your profit is £3,750. That is over £2,500, so, in our reading, you both register by 5 October 2027, and each of you files a 2026-27 return online by 31 January 2028.

If you had rent in 2025-26 and missed 5 October 2026, register now. The online return is due by 31 January 2027. If HMRC's notice to file is dated after 31 October 2026, you get 3 months from that date instead. The tax is still due by 31 January 2027. GOV.UK says that if you register after 5 October and do not pay all of your tax bill by 31 January, you may get a failure to notify penalty, based on the amount still unpaid. If the failure was not deliberate and you tell HMRC yourself within 12 months of the tax being due, HMRC's factsheet puts it at 0% to 30% of that amount.

Registering is also the first step towards Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD). You can only sign up once you are registered and have sent a return in the last 2 years. MTD already applies over £50,000 in 2024-25. Otherwise it starts on 6 April 2027 if your rent and any self-employed turnover, before expenses, was over £30,000 in 2025-26, and on 6 April 2028 if it was over £20,000 in 2026-27. Joint owners count only their share.

Rent from earlier years

If you should have registered in an earlier year, HMRC's Let Property Campaign lets you tell it about past rent from residential lets. You notify HMRC, receive a disclosure reference, then have 90 days to disclose and pay what you owe. If you did not register on time, the campaign guide says you may have to pay what you owe for up to 20 years. Rent from the current tax year and the year before goes on tax returns, not the disclosure. Each person who owes tax makes their own disclosure.

If you live abroad

If you live abroad for 6 months or more a year, HMRC treats you as a non-resident landlord. Your letting agent, or a tenant paying you more than £100 a week with no agent, takes basic rate tax off your rent unless HMRC approves form NRL1i. You still declare the rent on a return unless HMRC tells you not to, by post or with commercial software, as HMRC online services are not open to you. See how the non-resident landlord scheme works.

Steps to register as a landlord

1. Add up the rent you received in the tax year, using your share if you own jointly, and take off allowable expenses.
2. If your profit is over £2,500, your rent over £10,000 or your Rent a Room income over £7,500 (£3,750 if shared), and you do not already send a return, go to GOV.UK's Check how to register for Self Assessment.
3. Choose "for another reason", or "self-employed" if you also work for yourself.
4. Say whether you sent a return last year.
5. Sign in, prove your identity if asked, and finish the questions. If you live abroad, send form SA1 by post.
6. Look for your UTR in your personal tax account within 72 hours, or by post in about 15 working days.
7. Keep records of rent and costs. File by 31 January after the tax year online, or 31 October on paper, and pay by 31 January.
8. Use the free MTD check to see whether Making Tax Digital applies to you.

See the landlord section for more.