UK Landlords Face First MTD Tax Deadline 7 August 2026
HM Revenue and Customs has set 7 August 2026 as the deadline for the first quarterly update under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, the digital reporting regime that pulls self-employed people and landlords with rental income above £50,000 out of the old annual Self Assessment cycle and into quarterly filing. Anyone letting property in the UK, short-term or otherwise, whose gross rental income crossed that threshold on their 2024-25 tax return needs a compliant digital record-keeping system running from 6 April 2026, because the first reporting quarter closes on 5 July and the submission window is one month after that.
What actually has to be filed, and by whom
The scheme covers gross income, not profit, so a host running a handful of well-booked short-term lets can clear £50,000 in turnover well before they clear it in take-home earnings. From 6 April 2026, those landlords must keep digital records of income and expenses throughout the year and send HMRC a quarterly summary via compatible software rather than waiting for one annual return. The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027, and the government has set out plans to bring it down again to £20,000 from April 2028, which will catch a much wider band of part-time and small-scale hosts. The annual Self Assessment final declaration, due by 31 January after the tax year ends, does not go away - quarterly updates sit on top of it, not instead of it.
Why the abolition of furnished holiday lettings status matters here
The Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime was scrapped from 6 April 2025, so short-term rental income is now taxed the same way as any other residential letting, with no separate capital allowances or reliefs. That change feeds directly into who gets caught by these thresholds, because there is no longer a distinct FHL category to complicate the qualifying-income calculation. A host with several self-catering units and combined gross bookings north of £50,000 is treated exactly like a landlord with the same turnover from long-term tenancies. Property managers running multiple owner accounts should check now whether client-level income, not just per-property income, tips anyone over the line.
Penalties and what to do before April
Missed quarterly submissions accrue points under HMRC's points-based penalty system: reach four points and a £200 fine follows, with further fines for each subsequent late filing until the points lapse. HMRC has not signalled any delay to the 6 April 2026 start date, and the trade bodies representing self-catering operators are treating it as fixed.
