New tax admin for landlords over £30k: what changes in April 2027

DPG News Watch, 7 October 2026.

HMRC has issued a six-month warning to landlords and sole traders: from 6 April 2027, anyone with qualifying income over £30,000 will need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. HMRC estimates around 1,077,000 more people will be brought in. If you have a couple of rental properties, there is a good chance this includes you.

£30k doesn't mean £30k profit. This is the part that catches people out. The threshold is based on qualifying income: your gross income from property and self-employment combined, before any expenses are taken off. A landlord collecting £32,000 a year in rent can be well over the line even if their profit after mortgage interest, repairs and fees is a fraction of that. If you own property jointly, you normally count only your share of the income.

Which year counts. The April 2027 phase is based on the income shown on your 2025 to 2026 tax return. HMRC writes to people it believes are in scope, but don't wait for a letter. Check your own figures.

What actually changes. Instead of pulling everything together once a year, you will need to keep digital records of your income and expenses, use HMRC-compatible software, send HMRC quarterly updates, and then submit your tax return through that software at the end of the year.

The bigger timeline. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started on 6 April 2026 for those with qualifying income over £50,000. It drops to £30,000 from April 2027 and is due to fall again to £20,000 from April 2028, bringing in even more smaller landlords.

Choose software carefully. Not every product on HMRC's list is finished yet. Research reported this week found that around one in three Making Tax Digital products that handle landlords' UK property income cannot yet file a full tax return. When you compare options, check that the software can do both the quarterly updates and the end-of-year return, not just one of them.

Why it matters for investors. This is not a new tax, and it does not change how much you pay. It changes how and how often you report. But it is a real admin cost, especially as a portfolio grows. With our refurb-and-refinance strategy, a single property can involve purchase costs, a large refurb, bridging finance and then a remortgage within a year, and keeping clean, dated records of all of that is far easier as you go than at the end.

The takeaway. Check whether your qualifying income is over £30,000, pick software that can handle the full process, and start keeping digital records now rather than at tax-return time. If you use an accountant, talk to them about how they will handle it. Six months goes quickly.

Source: HMRC, October 2026. This article is for general education only and is not tax advice. Speak to an accountant or tax adviser about your own circumstances.