If you’re a sole trader or landlord with total income from your business and property of more than £50,000 in 2024/25, you’ll probably need to follow the new Making Tax Digital (MTD) rules from 6th April 2026. If your income is below this level, you’ll be brought into the system later.

We’ve covered the general MTD requirements in past newsletters, but here’s a look at how it impacts income from property that’s owned jointly (by you and one or more other people).

What you’ll need to do:

The MTD rules set out specific categories for recording income and expenses. Any MTD-compatible software or spreadsheet should let you tag each item correctly. Every quarter, you’ll need to submit a Quarterly Update to HMRC, showing the year-to-date totals for each category.

Easements (simpler options) for jointly owned property:

There are two ways the rules can be simplified for people with jointly owned property income:

1. If your total income is under £900,000 a year:

You can just record items as ‘income’ or ‘expense’, instead of using all the detailed categories.

1. If you have jointly owned property income

You can report a single total income figure each quarter, and one total expense figure once a year (in the final quarter).

If you qualify for both easements, you can combine them, making the reporting much simpler. So you would submit one income figure each quarter, plus one total expense figure in quarter four.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch for support on all things MTD or to join HMRCs pilot scheme for 2025/26.