A higher fee is likely if your accountant keeps your records, files every update and prepares your return, because Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for Income Tax) turns one annual tax return into four quarterly updates and a final declaration. The rise is usually much smaller if you keep digital records yourself in compatible software and use the accountant for the year-end. Whether the increase is fair depends on what the new fee covers, so ask for it in writing before you say yes.
This article covers who has to use MTD and from when, what the extra MTD work is, what landlords are being quoted, and how to test a proposed fee. It also covers when moving to a different accountant makes sense.
Who has to use MTD for Income Tax, and from when
HMRC's guidance sets three conditions. You need to use MTD for Income Tax if all of these apply:
- you are a sole trader or landlord registered for Self Assessment;
- you get income from self-employment or property, or both; and
- your qualifying income is above the threshold for the relevant tax year.
The start date depends on how much qualifying income you had in an earlier tax year. HMRC looks at the return you filed for that year.
| Qualifying income was over | In tax year | You must use it from |
|---|---|---|
| £50,000 | 2024 to 2025 | 6 April 2026 |
| £30,000 | 2025 to 2026 | 6 April 2027 |
| £20,000 | 2026 to 2027 | 6 April 2028 |
The first stage has already started. If your 2024 to 2025 return showed qualifying income over £50,000, you should have started on 6 April 2026. The gov.uk guidance says you can still sign up if you have not done so. An accountancy firm's guide notes that the first quarterly update was due on 7 August 2026 and the next is due on 7 November.
Partnerships will also need to use MTD in future. HMRC says it will set out that timetable later.
How HMRC tells you, and why you should not wait for the letter
HMRC reviews your Self Assessment return each year and checks your qualifying income. If you are over the threshold, it writes to confirm that you must start by the beginning of the following tax year. For example, HMRC reviewed 2024 to 2025 returns to decide who needed to start in April 2026.
The gov.uk guidance is blunt about what happens if no letter arrives. It is still your responsibility to check whether and when you need to use MTD, and to be signed up and ready. You can use HMRC's online tool, ask your accountant, or ask a relative or friend who helps with your tax affairs. If you think HMRC is wrong, you should contact HMRC.
A software provider's guide for accountants adds that from September 2026 HMRC is signing up sole traders and landlords who are required to use MTD but have not registered. Doing nothing is not a plan.
To sign up yourself, you must be registered for Self Assessment and have submitted a tax return in the last two years. You still submit a Self Assessment tax return for the tax year before you start using MTD.
Exemptions
HMRC says there are different reasons someone can be exempt. Being digitally excluded is one example. If you are exempt, you do not use MTD but you must keep reporting your income and gains in a Self Assessment tax return. HMRC publishes separate guidance on exemptions, so check that page rather than assuming you qualify.
Do limited company landlords use MTD?
MTD for Income Tax applies to individuals. Properties held in a limited company fall under Corporation Tax rules and are not part of it. A company landlord still files company accounts and pays Corporation Tax, and a director may still have a Self Assessment return of their own. If you hold some property personally and some through a company, only the personally held property is in scope, and your personal and company tax liabilities still need to be managed side by side.
Whether a small limited company needs an accountant is a separate question that depends on the company, its accounts and your confidence with the filings. That is a matter to settle with a professional, not something MTD decides either way.
How qualifying income is counted
This is where most landlords get caught out, so it is worth working through.
Qualifying income is gross income from self-employment and property, added together. It is turnover, not profit. Expenses are ignored for the test. Employment income, partnership profit shares, dividends and pensions do not count, and neither does other income such as savings interest. Only your self-employment and property income is tested, and any other income source stays outside the threshold.
Three points follow from that.
Gross rent is what counts, not what is left after costs. A landlord whose mortgage interest and repairs leave a small profit can still be over the line. Rental income is measured before expenses.
Property and self-employment are added together. Two sources that each look small can combine to put you over. Take an example: a landlord lets one flat at £1,850 a month, which is £22,200 of gross rent, and also does consultancy work with turnover of £31,000. Qualifying income is £53,200. That is over £50,000, so they were required to start on 6 April 2026, even though their taxable profit is nearer £28,000.
A salary or pension does not count. The same firm's example is a landlord with a job and one rental property producing £18,000 a year. Only the rent is tested, so they are outside the rules until the £20,000 threshold arrives in April 2028. Add self-employed turnover and the two figures combine.
Jointly owned property
For jointly owned property, only your share of the income counts. If you own half of a property producing £60,000 a year, £30,000 counts towards your threshold. For landlords who are married or civil partners, a Form 17 election can be used to declare the actual beneficial ownership split with HMRC. If you own property with someone, the split on paper matters, so check it before you work out your start date.
Worked example: when does this landlord start?
Take a landlord with four flats let personally, bringing in £26,000 of gross rent in 2026 to 2027. They also have a salary and some savings interest, which do not count. They have no self-employment.
- Their qualifying income is £26,000.
- That is below £30,000, so they would not have been caught by the April 2027 stage, assuming their 2025 to 2026 rent was also below £30,000.
- Because their 2026 to 2027 qualifying income is over £20,000, they must use MTD from 6 April 2028.
The test uses the earlier year's return. The date is therefore set by income you have already earned, and you can work it out now.
What does MTD for Income Tax mean for a landlord?
There are three pieces of work: digital records, quarterly updates and a final declaration. Together they replace the single annual tax return for the income that falls within the rules.
1. Digital records
HMRC defines a digital record as a record of an income or expense that is created and stored using software that works with MTD for Income Tax. You or your agent must create these records for your property and any self-employment income and expenses.
Some practical rules from the gov.uk guidance:
- Each record needs three things: the amount, the date the income was received or the expense incurred, and a category. The categories are the same ones used in Self Assessment.
- You still keep the paperwork. You must keep original records or copies, such as bank statements and invoices, as you do now for Self Assessment.
- Keep records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline for the tax year.
- Create records before the update deadline. HMRC recommends doing it as close to the transaction as possible. If you sign up part-way through a tax year, you catch up by creating records from the start of that year.
All your UK property is one business. HMRC treats one or more UK properties as a single UK property business, so you do not need separate digital records for each property. Your share of jointly let property forms part of that business. Your software adds the property income and expenses together and puts them in one quarterly update.
Mortgage payments. If a transaction is part capital and part revenue, you can record the full amount and adjust before you submit your return, or record only the revenue part. HMRC's example is a mortgage payment: record either the interest or the full amount. If you record the full amount, you must adjust before you finalise your Income Tax position.
Net income only. If you only know your income after expenses, for instance from a trust or partnership, HMRC says you need to find out the full amount before expenses, record that, and record the expenses separately as an income or expense of their own.
Digital links. If you use more than one software product, the records must be digitally linked. Once a record has been sent to HMRC in a quarterly update, you must not move it by hand. HMRC says you must not copy information by writing it out in another cell or software, and must not cut and paste or copy and paste it. Acceptable links include linked cells in spreadsheets, importing and exporting files such as CSV, and automated transfers through an application programming interface (API).
Small property income. HMRC's guidance says you do not need digital records of property income for MTD if the income was below the property income allowance and you did not need to declare it on your previous return. Check how this applies to you if you have a small second source of income.
2. The quarterly update
Every three months your software adds up your digital records and sends HMRC a quarterly update for each self-employment and property business you have. HMRC is clear that these are summaries, not tax returns. Landlords sometimes call them MTD submissions, but they are summaries of property income and expenses, not a tax calculation.
- HMRC receives totals for each income and expense category. It does not receive individual receipts or invoices.
- You do not need to make any accounting or tax adjustments before sending an update.
- Each update is cumulative. It covers the tax year so far, from 6 April to the end of the update period. An error in one quarter is corrected in the next update.
- If you had no income or expenses in a period, you must still send the update.
| Update period (standard) | Deadline |
|---|---|
| 6 April to 5 July | 7 August |
| 6 April to 5 October | 7 November |
| 6 April to 5 January | 7 February |
| 6 April to 5 April | 7 May (following tax year) |
If your accounting period runs 1 April to 31 March, you can use calendar update periods instead, which end on 30 June, 30 September, 31 December and 31 March. The deadlines are the same. Your software defaults to standard periods. If you want calendar periods you must select them before you send your first update, because you cannot change them for the rest of that tax year once an update has been sent.
You can send an update up to 10 days before the end of the period if you do not expect to record anything further. You can also send updates more often than quarterly, as long as each still covers the full period.
How many updates will you have? Four a year for each business. An accountancy firm's example is that five flats do not mean twenty updates, they mean four. A landlord who also has a sole trade has two businesses, which means eight updates a year.
Joint property. If you let property jointly, HMRC lets you choose to include either income and expenses, or income only, in your quarterly updates. If you leave expenses out, you must report them after the year ends by resending your fourth update before you submit your return. You can also create less detailed records for jointly let property, covering only your share of the income and expenses. If you also own other properties alone, you must include both property income and expenses for those.
What an update is not. An update does not change when you pay. Tax is still due by 31 January after the tax year, with payments on account on 31 January and 31 July. HMRC does say that after you send an update you can get an estimate of your tax bill for the year to date, in your software and in your HMRC online account. The estimate is less accurate if you have another income source that HMRC does not yet know about.
3. The final declaration and annual tax return
After the fourth update, you check whether you need to make any adjustments to your property and self-employment figures, then submit your tax return through your software. This is how the final declaration works:
- The digital tax return effectively replaces the SA100 Self Assessment return, so your annual tax return is now filed through software.
- The submission is a declaration that the information is complete and correct. The client must review and sign it. An accountant cannot sign it for you.
- 31 January is still the filing deadline, and any Income Tax owed must still be paid by 31 January. Payments on account continue.
- HMRC does not provide a way to file without software, so compatible software has to be used all the way through.
- If some information cannot be submitted through software, you may still need to complete a Self Assessment return.
You report your other income here too. Income such as savings interest and dividends goes into the return, even if it does not appear in the quarterly updates. The gov.uk guidance says that if your software cannot record other income during the year, or you choose not to, you must add it before you submit.
Penalties
The penalty position is more forgiving than many landlords assume, for now.
- 2026 to 2027: HMRC will not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates in this tax year. You must still send your quarterly updates before you can submit your tax return using software. Penalty points still apply for late tax returns.
- After 2026 to 2027: a missed quarterly deadline earns a late submission penalty point. At four points you get a £200 penalty. Penalty points also apply to late tax returns.
- Volunteers: if you have joined voluntarily, penalties do not apply to late quarterly updates. Late returns still earn points, and at two points you get a £200 penalty.
This matters for the fee conversation. The first year is a period in which you can settle your process and scope without penalties for late quarterly updates, so you do not have to accept the first package you are offered under time pressure.
MTD software for landlords: what you need
You must use software that works with MTD for Income Tax. HMRC says each product works differently and it cannot give advice about specific software products. Beyond that, the choice is practical.
- Accounting software with bank feeds reduces typing and categorises transactions, at a monthly cost. Software built for landlords is designed around rent, arrears and property expenses, while general accounting software is built around invoicing and payroll.
- A spreadsheet plus bridging software is cheaper and fine if your records are tidy. Bridging software converts spreadsheet data into a form HMRC can accept. A spreadsheet on its own does not meet the rules, because the records must be capable of being sent to HMRC digitally. One accountancy firm calls the bridging route technically possible but fiddly and error-prone once quarterly deadlines arrive one after another.
- Free products exist. An accountancy firm notes that HMRC publishes a list of compatible products, including free ones with caps on the number of transactions.
If you want to use software and keep your own records, ask your accountant whether they can work with the product you choose. A landlord software company says most firms now prefer to review the same live ledger you maintain, rather than wait for a January export, and that reviewing clean digital records takes a fraction of the time reconstructing them from statements does.
Who does the MTD work, and why that decides the fee
The rules say you or your agent must create the digital records. That sentence is the whole fee discussion. There are three ways to split the MTD work.
- You do the records, the accountant reviews and files. You keep your records in compatible software. The accountant checks them, corrects anything miscategorised and files.
- The accountant does everything. You send bank statements and invoices, and the firm does the bookkeeping, the four updates and the final declaration. One accountancy firm describes both routes and says of the first that it is cheaper, and of the second that it is quieter, with the same outcome.
- You do it all yourself. You keep the records, send the updates and make the final declaration with no accountant.
A main agent can submit the final return once you have confirmed in writing that it is correct and complete. A supporting agent, such as a bookkeeper, can submit quarterly updates but not the annual return. That can be a way to split the work and the cost.
Why accountants are raising fees: pricing for MTD
Accountants are not inventing the extra work. Landlords used to generate one filing event a year. Now there are five touchpoints: four quarterly updates and a final declaration.
A software provider's pricing guide, written for accountancy practices, argues that pricing for MTD has to change because annual fees no longer reflect the work. It says each quarterly update still requires records to be acquired and reviewed, figures to be sense-checked and errors corrected before filing, and that the practice must now maintain high-quality records throughout the year. A landlord software company makes the same point from the landlord's side. It says full-service accountancy becomes more expensive because there is genuinely more work in it, while the underlying rental business has not changed at all.
The same pricing guide reports that many practices are moving from annual fees to monthly retainers or tiered packages. It suggests framing the conversation as ‘which level of support do you want’ rather than ‘why are fees going up’. Expect your accountant's proposal to be shaped like this. It is a sensible way to price year-round work, but it also makes it harder to compare with last year's single fee, which is why you should ask for the numbers in a comparable form.
Can AI reduce the cost of MTD work?
Software providers argue that it can. Their case is that AI tools can take over repetitive groundwork, such as sorting clients by complexity, chasing documents and flagging issues early, which frees staff time for review and advice. That is a claim about how a practice might cut its own costs. It does not tell you your fee will fall, so ask your accountant whether any saving is reflected in the quote.
What are the typical fees for an accountant in the UK?
There is no regulated price for accountancy, and no HMRC figure for what an accountant should charge. The ranges available come from firms and software companies, so treat them as orientation rather than a benchmark.
A landlord software company publishes typical quoted ranges for mid-2026. It says they are drawn from published practice price lists and landlord accountancy packages:
| Service | Typical quoted range |
|---|---|
| Self Assessment return only, one or two properties | £150 to £300 |
| Return plus bookkeeping, small portfolio | £400 to £800 |
| Portfolio landlords with five or more properties | £800 to £2,000 |
The company is clear that these vary enormously by region, firm and complexity. It says London and South East practices sit at the top of the ranges, firms in the Midlands, the North and Scotland are typically cheaper, and specialist property accountants cost more than generalists.
It also gives an illustrative annual cost model. It describes it as a model, not a survey, and it sells landlord software, which sits in the software column. The model compares software only, an accountant doing everything, and a hybrid where you file the quarterly updates and pay an accountant for the year-end review and final declaration.
| Portfolio | Software only | Accountant does everything | Hybrid |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 property | £0 to £150 a year | £150 to £400 | £150 to £400 |
| 5 properties | £120 to £350 | £600 to £1,400 | £350 to £800 |
| 10 properties | £200 to £500 | £900 to £2,000 | £500 to £1,100 |
| 20 properties | £300 to £800 | £1,500 to £3,000 or more | £800 to £1,800 |
The pattern in the model is worth understanding even if you do not rely on the exact figures. Accountant-only costs climb steeply with portfolio size because the bookkeeping scales with the number of transactions. The hybrid column sits much closer to the software column, because taking the bookkeeping away removes most of the accountant's hours.
The same company says the biggest driver of the fee is not the number of properties but how much bookkeeping the accountant has to do before the tax work can start. A landlord who arrives with a clean, categorised ledger buys an hour or two of review. A landlord who arrives with a bag of receipts and a year of unsorted statements buys a day of data entry at professional rates. It says that cost often arrives as a separate line the original quote never mentioned.
Monthly retainer figures
For accountants setting a monthly fee, the software provider's pricing guide gives an illustrative three-tier structure. It is an example for practices to adapt, not a price list:
- Compliance only: £35 to £50 a month plus VAT, plus software. You keep the books in agreed software, the accountant reviews quarterly and submits the updates. The final tax return is priced separately.
- Compliance plus light support: £65 to £85 a month plus VAT, plus software. Includes bookkeeping support for simple businesses and a basic tax estimate after each quarter. The final return is priced separately.
- Compliance plus advisory: £100 to £150 a month plus VAT, plus software. Includes full quarterly bookkeeping, cash flow summaries and a tax planning conversation. The final return is included or discounted.
A fee of £35 to £150 a month is £420 to £1,800 a year before VAT, software and the final return in the lower tiers. If your accountant quotes a monthly figure, do the annual sum and compare it with last year's invoice.
One online accountancy firm advertises landlord plans from £12.50 a month. A headline like that does not tell you whether quarterly updates are included. Ask.
Some firms do not publish prices at all. A firm like this usually says the work varies, and quotes a fixed fee after seeing the client's records.
What the standard fee does not usually cover
The landlord software company says a return fee does not normally cover a capital gains tax computation on a disposal, a Form 17 declaration, correspondence with HMRC about an enquiry, or modelling whether to incorporate. These are usually billed separately, often hourly. That is where accountancy costs become unpredictable, and it is worth asking about before you need it.
Are accountant fees tax deductible?
Whether a fee is deductible depends on what the work was for and how the income is taxed. The cost of preparing the return and keeping property records is a different thing from, say, advice on a personal disposal. Ask your accountant to split the invoice by type of work, and confirm the treatment of each part with them. That is a point of landlord tax that should be settled in writing rather than assumed.
What is reasonable to pay for
A fair fee pays for work that has genuinely increased. Here is a way to test a proposal.
Reasonable to pay for:
- Setting up your software and migrating your records, if the accountant does it.
- Obtaining agent authorisation. Your existing Self Assessment authorisation does not carry across to MTD automatically, so the accountant must request it again.
- Checking, categorising and querying your records each quarter, and submitting the update.
- A tax estimate or forecast each quarter, if you want one. It moves planning decisions from January into the year itself.
- The final declaration, including the year-end adjustments and your other income.
- Tax advice on joint ownership, capital gains tax, incorporation, residence or an HMRC enquiry, which software cannot give.
Harder to justify, or worth negotiating:
- A quarterly charge for each property. HMRC treats all UK property as one business, so the number of updates does not rise with the number of properties.
- A fee that assumes the accountant does all the bookkeeping when you intend to keep the records yourself.
- Paying for updates and then paying again for a ‘final return’ without being told what is in each price.
- A price rise that arrives without a description of what has changed.
In 2026 to 2027 there are no penalty points for late quarterly updates, so you should not feel pressed into a package because of a deadline in the first year.
What to ask before you agree to a new fee
Use these questions. Each one comes from how the rules and the market work.
- What exactly is in the fee? Ask what is included: setting up, each quarterly update, the final declaration, tax estimates, and queries by phone or email. A letter of engagement should set out what is included, what is not and how your choices affect the fee.
- Is the price annual, monthly or per filing? Ask for the MTD pricing in writing and check whether the figure is annual or per filing.
- Is the final tax return in the price or separate? In the example structure above it is priced separately in the lower tiers. Ask for the full annual cost.
- Who does the bookkeeping, and what happens if I do it? The fee should drop if you keep compliant digital records yourself. Ask what the price would be.
- Which software must I use, and who pays for it? Ask whether the software is in the fee or on top. The published ranges and tiers above both show software as a separate cost.
- What is not covered? Ask how capital gains tax on a sale is charged, what an HMRC enquiry would cost, and whether there is a fixed fee or an hourly rate.
- Will the accountant act as main agent or supporting agent? The difference matters for who can submit the final return and who can send quarterly updates.
- What happens in 2027 and 2028? If your income may push you over the £30,000 or £20,000 thresholds, or if you add another business, ask how the fee would change.
- When will the price be reviewed? A fee set in the first year of MTD is likely to need revisiting once the workflows have settled, so agree a review date after year one.
If you get a written answer to each of these, you can compare the proposal with the alternatives.
Can you use MTD without an accountant?
Sometimes. A landlord software company says that if your affairs are straightforward, meaning UK residential property held personally, standard allowable expenses, no disposals planned and no other significant income, plenty of landlords handle the whole regime with software and no accountant. A one-off consultation at setup to check your expense categories map to HMRC's categories is described as cheap insurance.
That company's list of situations where software is not enough is a useful check:
- you are selling a property, because the capital gains tax computation involves acquisition costs, improvements, reliefs and losses that most software does not model;
- you are considering incorporation;
- you are non-resident or have overseas income;
- you have materially mixed income, such as rent alongside self-employment, dividends or pension drawdown;
- you are under an HMRC enquiry or need to make a disclosure; or
- ownership is shared or unusual, such as a trust or an unequal split.
If your situation is straightforward, the hybrid model is the one to price: you file the updates to HMRC, the accountant reviews and finalises. If it is not, a full-service fee may be fair.
Can your accountant do your Making Tax Digital?
Yes. Digital records can be created by you or your agent, and HMRC's guidance covers agents acting for clients. What the accountant cannot do is sign the declaration for you: you must review and confirm the return. Your accountant also needs fresh authorisation for MTD, because Self Assessment authorisation does not carry across. It is requested through the firm's agent account, and a good firm will not ask for your Government Gateway login.
MTD for landlords: when switching accountant makes sense
Switching is worth considering when the answers to the questions above do not justify the rise, or when the service does not match what the rules now require. Reasonable triggers include:
- The fee rises and the service does not change. You are paying more for the same annual return, with no quarterly review, no estimates and no explanation.
- Your accountant is not talking to you about MTD. One competing accountancy firm argues that the new rules require an accountant to be involved through the year and not only at Self Assessment time, and that if yours is not discussing software, set-up and the quarterly process, it is worth asking why. That is a fair question to put to your own accountant, whatever its source.
- You cannot get a written fee. An accountant who will not tell you what they charge for quarterly updates and the final declaration has not finished planning for them.
- Your affairs have outgrown the firm. If you have a portfolio, joint ownership or a sale coming, you may need a firm that handles property regularly. Specialist property accountants charge more than generalists but tend to earn it back on anything unusual.
- You want a cheaper arrangement. If you will keep the records yourself, a firm offering a review and filing service may cost less than full service.
Already with another accountant?
Switching mid-year is routine. Because quarterly updates are cumulative, a new accountant does not need to unpick what you filed. They rebuild the year to date from your records, correct anything miscategorised, and the next update carries the corrected figures forward. Another firm says it will contact your previous accountant if required and begin the authorisation process with HMRC.
The practical steps are these:
- Decide what you need from the new arrangement, using the questions above.
- Get a written fee from the new firm, including what is and is not covered.
- Tell the new firm which accounting software you use, and whether it will keep or replace it.
- Give the new firm access to your records. HMRC's guidance says that when you sign up you decide how your agent will act for you.
- Do not end the old arrangement until the new authorisation is in place and the update due next has a clear owner.
How professional clearance between firms works, and what the outgoing accountant must hand over, depends on the firms and your engagement terms. Check those with the firms involved rather than assuming.
What the Autumn Budget could change
An Autumn Budget is expected on 28 October 2026, and landlords will be watching it for further changes. Everything above reflects the rules and HMRC guidance as they stand now. After the Budget, check the gov.uk guidance on MTD for Income Tax before you rely on a date or threshold in this article, and before you agree a fee that depends on one.
What Deplexify does for landlords
We prepare the MTD quarterly updates that go to HMRC, along with the Self Assessment tax return for landlords. Property, a job, dividends and interest are handled in one place, and jointly owned property is split between the owners. You do not need to buy software. A chartered accountant reviews and signs off every file before it is filed. Details are on the Deplexify landlord and property page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my accountant's fees go up because of Making Tax Digital?
If the accountant does all your record-keeping, a rise is likely, because one annual filing becomes four quarterly updates and a final declaration. A landlord software company says the increase is usually much smaller if you keep the records yourself in compatible software and involve the accountant at year-end. Ask for the new pricing in writing, and check whether the figure is annual or per filing.
Can I still use a spreadsheet?
Only with a digital link to HMRC. A spreadsheet on its own does not meet the rules. You can use one with bridging software, or with a spreadsheet built to link digitally to cloud services. Copying and pasting records after they have been sent to HMRC is not allowed.
Can I manage MTD myself with software instead of hiring an accountant?
If your property is held personally, your expenses are standard and you have no disposals or complications, many landlords do. Consider a one-off consultation at the start to confirm your expense categories. Keep an accountant for capital gains tax, incorporation, residence questions, mixed income and HMRC enquiries.
Do I need to start now?
That depends on your qualifying income. If your 2024 to 2025 return showed gross property and self-employment income above £50,000, you should already have started on 6 April 2026. Otherwise the next dates are 6 April 2027 for income over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026, and 6 April 2028 for income over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027.
Does MTD apply to a landlord with a salary and one rental?
Only the rent is tested, because employment income does not count towards qualifying income. A rental income of £18,000 would leave you outside MTD until the £20,000 threshold arrives in April 2028. If you also have self-employment income, add the two together before you decide.
Sources
- Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax - GOV.UK — gov.uk, read 2026-10-17
- Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax - Create digital records - Guidance - GOV.UK — gov.uk, read 2026-10-17
- Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax - Send quarterly updates - Guidance - GOV.UK — gov.uk, read 2026-10-17
- MTD for Income Tax: A Guide for Accountants | Sage UK — sage.com, read 2026-10-17
- Pricing for MTD: How to Charge More | Sage Advice — sage.com, read 2026-10-17
- Landlord Software vs Accountant: True Cost Comparison UK 2026 — uselatch.co.uk, read 2026-10-17
- Making Tax Digital Accountants | MTD for Income Tax and VAT — meritaccountants.co.uk, read 2026-10-17
- MTD for Landlords - Free Software & Expert Help - THP Accountants — thp.co.uk, read 2026-10-17
- MTD for Landlords – A Comprehensive Making Tax Digital Guide — alexander.co.uk, read 2026-10-17
- Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Landlords: The Complete Guide for 2026 — landlordstudio.com, read 2026-10-17
- Landlord Accounting Experts UK | Plans from £12.50 Per Month — a-wise.co.uk, read 2026-10-17
- Making Tax digital help - Landlord Discussion - OpenRent Landlord & Tenant Forum — community.openrent.co.uk, read 2026-10-17