Making Tax Digital for Landlords: Your 2026 Quarterly Filing Checklist

For a growing number of landlords, that question stopped being hypothetical in April 2026. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is now live, and if your property income is over the threshold, the old routine of one annual return built from a shoebox of receipts no longer meets the rules.

This is a plain English guide to what Making Tax Digital actually requires, who it applies to, and the simplest way to stay compliant.

What Making Tax Digital for Income Tax actually is

Making Tax Digital, or MTD, is HMRC's move to digital record keeping and more frequent reporting. Instead of one Self Assessment return a year, affected landlords now keep digital records of property income and expenses and send HMRC a summary every quarter using compatible software.

The headline change is frequency. You report four times a year, then confirm everything with a final declaration after the tax year ends. The aim, from HMRC's side, is fewer errors and a closer-to-real-time picture of what you owe. You can read the full HMRC guidance at HMRC's MTD for Income Tax page.

Who has to comply, and when

The rollout is staged by income level. The figures below are based on HMRC's published timeline.

• From April 2026: landlords and sole traders with qualifying income over £50,000
• From April 2027: income over £30,000
• From April 2028: income over £20,000 (note: confirm this date before publishing, as later-stage thresholds have moved before)

One point that catches people out: the threshold is based on gross income, not profit. It is your total rental income before costs, combined with any sole trader income. A portfolio that feels modest after the mortgage is paid can still be well over the line.

The four things you need to get right

1. Keep digital records

Paper ledgers and a once-a-year scramble no longer satisfy the rules. Income and expenses need to be recorded digitally, close to when they happen.

2. Use compatible software

Your records have to connect to HMRC through MTD-compatible software. A spreadsheet on its own does not qualify unless it is bridged by a compatible tool.

3. File quarterly updates

Four summaries a year, each covering a three-month period, submitted through your software.

4. Submit a final declaration

After the tax year ends, you confirm the full picture and finalise what you owe, replacing the old Self Assessment step.

Why spreadsheets stop working at this point

A spreadsheet can hold numbers. It cannot file them with HMRC, it does not flag what is missing before a deadline, and it does not categorise a transaction for you. Once you are reporting four times a year across several properties, the manual version becomes a part-time job.

This is the moment most landlords move from spreadsheets to software, because the cost of getting it wrong now outweighs the cost of the tool.

How PROXERA makes MTD effortless

PROXERA is MTD software for Making Tax Digital. It connects to your accounts through Open Banking, automatically categorises your property income and expenses, and submits your quarterly returns directly to HMRC.

You see your whole portfolio in one place: income, expenses, yield, equity and live property value. When a filing deadline approaches, the records are already there. There is no spreadsheet to reconcile and no gap to chase. MTD becomes a few minutes of review rather than a weekend of admin. See how MTD works in PROXERA.

Your MTD readiness checklist

Use this to check where you stand:

• Confirm whether your gross property income is over the current threshold
• Move your records from paper or standalone spreadsheets into compatible software
• Connect your bank accounts so income and expenses are captured automatically
• Diarise your four quarterly update dates for the tax year
• Make sure your software can submit both the quarterly updates and the final declaration

The bottom line

Making Tax Digital is not optional for landlords over the threshold, and the thresholds are coming down each year. The landlords who find it painless are the ones who set up the right system early, so the records build themselves and filing is a formality.

PROXERA was built for exactly this. See your portfolio clearly, keep HMRC happy automatically, and get your weekends back.