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

Count every room's rent, bills included, before costs, plus other rent and self-employed turnover. Over £30,000 in 2025-26? Sign up on GOV.UK with your Self Assessment sign-in to start on 6 April 2027, or now if over £50,000 in 2024-25.

A house in multiple occupation (HMO) is signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) the same way as any other let. What differs is the size of the number HMRC tests. This page follows GOV.UK's MTD guidance and HMRC's Property Income Manual, checked on 17 October 2026.

Do you need to sign up?

HMRC tests your qualifying income: your rent plus any self-employed turnover, before expenses. For an HMO that means the rent from every room, plus anything tenants pay you for bills, cleaning or other services. GOV.UK says rental income includes charges for services you provide, such as hot water, heating and cleaning of communal areas. HMRC's manual (PIM2076) treats those receipts as part of the property business when the services are an ordinary part of the letting. If services amount to a separate trade, that income counts as self-employed turnover. Wages, dividends, pensions and your profit share as a partner in a partnership do not count.

Qualifying income of £20,000 or less is an automatic exemption. HMRC writes to people over the line, but GOV.UK says you must check even without a letter.

A worked example. A landlord lets a 5-bedroom HMO at £600 a room each month, bills included, with every room let all year. Her rent is 5 × £600 × 12 = £36,000. She pays £7,000 in bills and other costs, but those do not come off the test. £36,000 is over £30,000, so if those are her 2025-26 figures and she was under £50,000 in 2024-25, she starts on 6 April 2027. If she owned the house 50:50 with her husband, each share would be £36,000 ÷ 2 = £18,000. With no other rent or self-employed income, neither would need MTD on those figures.

HMO situations that change the answer

If you live in the house

The Rent a Room Scheme covers furnished accommodation in your own home, up to £7,500 a year tax-free, or £3,750 if you share the income. It is only for the home you live in, so an HMO you do not live in does not qualify, and GOV.UK says it cannot be used for homes converted into separate flats. GOV.UK also says your home may be classed as an HMO if you let rooms to more than 2 people.

Neither GOV.UK nor the MTD regulations say directly whether Rent a Room income counts towards qualifying income. The regulations count the income you are required to put on your tax return. GOV.UK's MTD record-keeping guidance gives an example of a landlord who used the relief but was not required to declare that income because it was below the threshold. In our reading, income you did not have to put on your return is not in the figure HMRC tests. Receipts over the limit go on your return, so count them in full until HMRC says otherwise. In MTD, GOV.UK says you keep digital records of Rent a Room income if your last return showed the relief plus other UK property income, or gross property income over the limit.

What this means for you

If your 2025-26 HMO rent, bills included, plus any other rent and self-employed turnover, was over £30,000, and your 2024-25 total was not over £50,000, you must use MTD from 6 April 2027. You can sign up now for 2027-28, the next tax year, and your first quarterly update covers 6 April to 5 July 2027, due by 7 August 2027. If you volunteer for the current year instead, you must send any updates already missed and agree that the new penalties will apply, and HMRC then confirms when they start.

GOV.UK says there are no penalties for missed quarterly updates in 2026-27. The 28 October 2026 Budget said April 2027 joiners get none for 2027-28 updates either, though updates must still be sent, so the earliest possible point is 7 August 2028. After that, if you are required to use MTD, each missed deadline earns a point, and 4 points brings a £200 penalty. While you are only volunteering, GOV.UK says missed quarterly updates bring no penalties. If you have a mortgage on the HMO, mortgage interest is kept as its own record and sent separately in each update.

Steps to sign up as an HMO landlord

1. Add your 2025-26 rent from every room, including bills, cleaning and other service charges, before costs, plus other rent and self-employed turnover. Use only your share if you own jointly. If you started letting part-way through the year, scale the rent up to 12 months yourself, as GOV.UK requires: 6 months' rent counts double. Put the full-year figure into the free MTD check.
2. Check you are registered for Self Assessment and have sent a tax return in the last 2 years. If not, register and file first.
3. Choose software that works with MTD for Income Tax and can record rent, bills and mortgage interest separately.
4. Note the date your letting started if it was in the last 2 tax years, and any property you have stopped letting since your last return.
5. Sign in to the GOV.UK sign-up service with your Self Assessment user ID and password, and prove your identity if asked.
6. Check every property income source HMRC shows, add any missing, and choose the tax year you will start. An agent with an HMRC agent services account can do this for you instead.
7. Put the update deadlines in your diary: 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May.

The landlord section has more guides on running an HMO, including licensing and bills.