How do I sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax as an accidental landlord?

Only rent and self-employed turnover count, not salary. If those came to over £30,000 before expenses in 2025-26, and not over £50,000 in 2024-25, you start Making Tax Digital on 6 April 2027, signing up with your Self Assessment sign-in.

An accidental landlord lets out a home they used to live in, perhaps after moving in with a partner, taking a job elsewhere or failing to sell. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) means keeping digital records and sending HMRC an update every quarter. The test is the same as for any landlord, but a few rules matter more when the let was never planned. This page follows GOV.UK, checked on 16 October 2026.

Do you need to sign up at all?

Your qualifying income is your rent plus any self-employed turnover, before expenses. Wages from your job, dividends, the State Pension and private pensions are left out. If you own the home with someone else, only your share of the rent counts.

The table assumes you were not over £50,000 in 2024-25. If you were, you should have started on 6 April 2026. The third row is the one that catches people out. GOV.UK says that if you receive income from property, you need to annualise it yourself when your accounting period is shorter than 12 months. Our reading is that a let that started part-way through the year is scaled up to 12 months, so six months at £2,600 counts as £31,200, not £15,600. HMRC's letters are based on your return, so check this yourself rather than waiting for one.

What this means for you

An accidental landlord with one modest let may well fall under the line. Qualifying income of £20,000 or less is an automatic exemption on GOV.UK, so there is nothing to apply for. But the line drops to £20,000 from 6 April 2028, tested on your 2026-27 return, so a let of more than about £1,667 a month could bring you in then, if it is your only qualifying income.

If you are over the line, you cannot sign up until HMRC knows you as a landlord. The sign-up service needs you to be registered for Self Assessment and to have sent a tax return in the last 2 years. Someone who started letting recently and has never filed a return registers first, by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which the rent started.

Watch the exit too. If you move back in or sell, and that was your only rent with no self-employment, GOV.UK says to tell HMRC before the start of the next tax year. If you do not, you will need to use MTD anyway.

Steps to sign up

1. Add up the rent you received in 2025-26 before any expenses. Use your share if the home is jointly owned and, on our reading of GOV.UK, scale it up to a full year if the let started part-way through.
2. Add any self-employed turnover. Leave out your salary, dividends and pensions.
3. Compare the total with £30,000 for April 2027. Over £20,000 but not over £30,000 means checking again on your 2026-27 return for April 2028.
4. If you have never sent a tax return, register for Self Assessment and file one first.
5. Choose MTD-compatible software, or a service that uses it. GOV.UK's software guide says to choose it before you sign up.
6. Sign up on GOV.UK with the user ID and password you got when you registered for Self Assessment. Have the date you started receiving rent ready if it was in the last 2 tax years. You may be asked to prove your identity with a passport or driving licence in a phone app.
7. Start digital records from 6 April 2027, keeping mortgage interest as its own record.

The free MTD check works out your qualifying income from your share of the rent. For a part-year let, enter the rent scaled up to a full year.

After you sign up

Updates are reports, not payments. You pay tax on the same dates as before. If you use the simpler income-and-expenses records allowed below the VAT threshold, the record-keeping direction says mortgage interest and other residential finance costs must still be kept as a separate digital record and sent separately in each update.

If you are required to use MTD, a late return or 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 says there are no points for late 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 people letting a former home.