How do I sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax as a joint property owner?

Each co-owner signs up separately, using their share of the rent. If your share plus any other rent and turnover was over £30,000 in 2025-26, you start on 6 April 2027, or earlier if over £50,000 in 2024-25.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) means keeping digital records and sending HMRC an update every quarter. If you own a let with a spouse, partner, sibling or friend, there is no joint sign-up. Each of you is a separate taxpayer with a separate test.

How your share is worked out

Qualifying income is rent and self-employed turnover before expenses. For jointly owned property, GOV.UK says only your share counts. Its own example: rent of £50,000 shared equally gives each owner £25,000.

The table assumes you were not over £50,000 in 2024-25. If you were, GOV.UK says you should have started on 6 April 2026, and you can still sign up.

Wages, pensions and dividends never count. If you only receive a net share after the expenses have been paid, HMRC uses that net figure instead.

What this means for you

Two owners of the same property can have different start dates. In the third example above, you start in April 2027 because of your own flat, while your co-owner may not need MTD at all.

Joint property gets simpler record-keeping. HMRC's record-keeping direction lets a joint owner record their share of the income as one entry per category for each quarter, and their share of the expenses as one entry per category for the whole year. You do not need a digital link to your co-owner's records. Any property you own alone still needs full records, and mortgage interest must always be kept as its own record.

HMRC's quarterly update direction also appears to let joint owners send income-only updates for the joint property, then add the expenses after the year ends by resending the fourth update before the tax return. We have seen this only in GOV.UK search extracts, not on the direction page itself, so treat it as medium confidence and check before you rely on it.

Steps to sign up as a joint owner

1. Find your share of the rent for 2025-26, the share you report on your own tax return.
2. Add any rent from property you own alone and any self-employed turnover, all before expenses.
3. Compare the total with £30,000 for April 2027. If it is £20,000 or less, you do not need MTD.
4. Check you are registered for Self Assessment and have sent a tax return in the last 2 years.
5. Choose MTD software that can record a share of a jointly let property. The GOV.UK software finder lists products that have been through HMRC's checks.
6. Sign up on GOV.UK with your own Self Assessment user ID and password, listing every property income source.
7. Agree with your co-owner how you will share the figures each quarter, for example one of you keeps the rent record and sends the other a copy of their share.

The free MTD check works out your qualifying income, including a share of joint property.

After you sign up

For a 6 April 2027 start, your first update is due by 7 August 2027, then 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. Updates are reports, not payments; you pay tax on the same dates as before.

If you are required to use MTD, a late return or (later) a late update can earn a penalty point, and at 4 points HMRC charges £200. Volunteers get no penalties for missed quarterly updates. GOV.UK gives relief from points for quarterly updates in 2026-27. At the Budget on 28 October 2026 the government said people who must join in April 2027 will get no penalty points for late 2027-28 quarterly updates either, though the updates must still be sent. For them, the earliest a late update can earn a point is 7 August 2028. The landlord section has more guides for joint owners.