Making Tax Digital
Do I need Making Tax Digital with two properties?
People ask about property count, and the rules never mention it. Making Tax Digital applies by qualifying income (gross rent plus any self-employment turnover) against a threshold that falls each April until 2028. Two properties can be out of scope or well inside it. Here is how to tell which.
The threshold counts income, not properties
There is no property count anywhere in the rules. MTD for Income Tax applies when your qualifying income — gross rent plus any sole-trader turnover, before a single expense — is above £50,000 from April 2026, £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. Two flats at £900 a month is £21,600 a year: out of scope until April 2028, in scope from then. Two houses at £1,300 a month is £31,200, which joins in April 2027.
Gross, not profit
The figure HMRC tests is rent received, not what is left after the mortgage. A landlord whose two properties clear £4,000 a year after interest can be well over the threshold on rent alone, and most are.
A second income counts too
Qualifying income adds self-employment turnover to rent. One flat at £15,000 a year plus £10,000 of freelance work is £25,000 combined — in scope from April 2028, and from April 2027 if either side grows.
Add each property
Rent and expenses are recorded against the property they belong to, so the total that decides your threshold is a figure the software holds rather than one you add up in March.
Record income as it arrives
Each receipt goes in with its date, amount and HMRC category, near the time it happens. That is the digital-record rule, and the thing a year-end spreadsheet cannot retrofit.
See the quarter as a total
Quarterly figures by category are calculated from those records, so when your year arrives the update is a number to check rather than a job to do.
Get chased before the deadline
Reminders a month, a fortnight, a week and a day out, by email and in the app, whether or not you have signed in, and again while the update is overdue until it reaches HMRC. The same system that chases your gas safety certificate. Turn it off in Preferences if you are below the threshold.
What this is not
It does not tell you whether you are in scope. HMRC tests qualifying income across everything you earn, some of which LetBuddy never sees. Total your gross rent, add any self-employment turnover, and compare it to the year’s threshold — or ask an accountant, which for a borderline figure is the right call.
Submission is not yet live. LetBuddy is built against HMRC’s official MTD for Income Tax API and tested end to end in their sandbox; the production credentials application is with HMRC, and until LetBuddy is on the GOV.UK list of compatible software the submission step is marked coming soon in the product. Everything before that step — digital records against HMRC’s categories, bank import, quarter totals — works today.
Common questions
Do I need Making Tax Digital if I only have one property?
Possibly. The rules do not count properties. If the rent from that one property, plus any self-employment income, is above the threshold for the year — £50,000 from April 2026, £30,000 from April 2027, £20,000 from April 2028 — you are in scope. A single London flat can clear £30,000 a year on its own.
Is the MTD threshold based on profit?
No. It is qualifying income: gross rent plus sole-trader turnover, before any expense is deducted. Mortgage interest, agent fees and repairs do not reduce it.
My two properties are below the threshold now. When should I start keeping digital records?
Before you have to. Records must be digital from the start of the tax year in which you are mandated, and software that already holds this year’s transactions makes that a non-event rather than a re-keying exercise. The other reason is that the threshold falls each April until 2028, so “not yet” has a date on it.
Do I submit a separate quarterly update for each property?
No. A quarterly update is a single summary of all your UK property income and expenses by category. Overseas property is a separate source, but two ordinary UK buy-to-lets go in as one.
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Read this next
- Making Tax DigitalWho has to file quarterly, from when, and what counts as a digital record.
- MTD when your rental makes a lossA loss does not take you out of scope — the test is gross rent, and the loss is evidenced quarterly.
- MTD deadline checklistThe four quarterly dates, the final declaration, and what has to be digital by 6 April.