MTD for landlords,
property by property.

What catches landlords out?

Qualifying income is gross, not net. A landlord looking at profit after mortgage interest and agent fees can be well under the threshold in their own mind and well over it in HMRC's.

It also combines. Property income and self-employment income are added together for the test, so a modest portfolio alongside modest freelancing can cross a line neither would cross alone.

And it is per person, not per property. Jointly owned property is apportioned to each owner's share.

Why per-property records matter more now

A single annual reconstruction of a portfolio is unpleasant but survivable. Doing it four times a year is not.

Keeping rent, mortgage interest, repairs, agent fees and compliance costs against the individual property as they happen turns each quarterly update into a review. It also finally answers the question most landlords cannot: which property actually makes money.

The agent statement problem

Letting agent statements arrive as a PDF showing rent collected less commission and deductions, and the figure that reaches your bank is net. Recording the net figure as your income understates gross rent, which matters for both the threshold test and your tax return.

The statement has to be broken back into its components. Doing that monthly as it arrives takes minutes; doing it for a year at once is where errors come from.

What to do now

• —Check your gross qualifying income against the current threshold on gov.uk, including any self-employment.
• —Start recording per property rather than per portfolio, whether or not you are yet in scope.
• —Break agent statements into gross rent, commission and deductions as they arrive.
• —Keep compliance dates — gas safety, EICR, EPC, deposit protection — with the property they belong to.