If you’ve been putting off Making Tax Digital (MTD) for your property business, you’re not alone. The rules have been on the horizon for a while, but reality has a habit of sneaking up on even the most organised landlord. The good news? The next submission deadline is not until 7 November so there is enough time to get compliant—if you know exactly what to do and in what order.
This isn’t about panic. It’s about a clear, step-by-step catch-up plan that takes you from zero to fully MTD-ready before the deadline hits. Let’s break it down.
First, Confirm the Deadline Actually Applies to You
Before you start downloading software and digging through old receipts, pause. Not every landlord is in scope for the October deadline, and getting this wrong could mean unnecessary work—or worse, missing it entirely.
MTD for Income Tax is being phased in based on your gross property income. Currently, the rules apply to landlords with income over £50,000, with a second phase for those earning between £30,000 and £50,000. If you’re below those thresholds, your start date may be later—likely April 2028. But here’s the catch: your income is assessed on the previous tax year, so if you had a bumper year or this year’s figures are heading north, you might be in scope sooner than you think.
Here’s what to do this week:
- Work out your gross rental income for the 2024/25 tax year.
- Check HMRC’s guidance or speak to our team to confirm your start date.
- Mark your calendar for the quarterly submission dates that apply to you.
If you’re in scope, the November deadline is your first due date. That means your digital records need to be in place before then, not on the day. Although HMRC have confirmed no penalties for now they are coming so take this chance to get up to speed.
Choose Your MTD-Compatible Software Now
The biggest hurdle for most landlords isn’t the record-keeping itself—it’s the software. You can’t just send HMRC a spreadsheet or a PDF. You need HMRC-recognised MTD software that connects directly to their systems.
The market has exploded with options, which is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, there’s plenty of choice; on the other, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Here’s a practical filter: you want software that does three things well—quick setup, suitable features for your individual portfolio, and a clean interface for quarterly submissions.
Quick setup matters more than you think. Some platforms take days to configure, with complex custom fields and workflows that are overkill for smaller property businesses. Look for software designed specifically for landlords—it should handle rent tracking, expense categorisation, and property-level profit calculations out of the box. If it feels like you need a degree in accounting to set it up, move on. That said, those with larger portfolios may need to spend the time on accounting software and expect to tailer it. Specific accounting software is far better at handling high values of transactions.
The right features. You might be starting from paper records, a spreadsheet, or a previous accounting package. Most good MTD tools offer a lot of the same fetures but they all do things slightly different. Do you need to produce rent statements for tenants, do you want to capture hundreds of receipts without typing in the information, how many bank accounts are you linking?, are there multiple owners and submission requirements?
The last thing you want is to do is spend hours setting something up that simply does not do what you need.
Check for HMRC recognition. This isn’t optional. Only software that has passed HMRC’s compatibility tests will work for submissions. Stick to the official list—it’s published on GOV.UK and updated regularly. Be careful though as HMRC have lot of things that software canbe “suiteable” for. We’ve seen examples of people buying payroll software by mistake because it is on the list of HMRC authorised software.
You can skip a good few hours of work here by asking our team. We will help you establish the best software for your needs and budget.
One more thing: don’t let the software selection process eat your whole month. If you don’t want to speak with us, and don’t want to spend hours, Landlord Stuido (free for up to three properties) and Hammock are an excellent place to start. For 10+ portfolios you really should not just jump in though.
Get Your Digital Records in Order
With your software chosen, the real work begins: getting your records digitised. Under MTD, you’re required to keep digital records of your income and expenses, and you need to submit a quarterly update to HMRC summarising those figures.
Here’s the essential list of what you must track for each property:
- Income: rent received (including any deposits, if they’re being used as income), service charges, and any other receipts.
- Expenses: mortgage interest, repairs and maintenance, insurance, letting agent fees, professional fees, utilities, ground rent, and service charges.
- Deductions: any reliefs you’re claiming, such as the property income allowance or replacement domestic items relief.
- Capital costs: these aren’t part of your quarterly update but you’ll need them for your annual return, so keep records of any significant purchases.
The good news is you don’t need to scan every receipt from the past six years. You only need to start recording from the beginning of the current tax year (April 6), and you need to bring forward enough opening information to make your quarterly submissions accurate.
Here’s what this looks like in practice. Imagine you have a two-bed flat in Morpeth that you let to a professional couple. You receive £1,100 per month in rent, pay a managing agent 12% plus VAT, and had a boiler repair in July that cost £340. Under MTD, each of these becomes a digital record. Your software should let you categorise the boiler repair as ‘repairs and maintenance’ and the agent’s fee as ‘professional fees’ with a couple of clicks. At the end of October, your quarterly update will aggregate these figures and send them to HMRC.
The trick is to build a routine. Set aside 15 minutes every week to log income and expenses. Or do it every time you check to see if a tenant has paid. It’s far less painful than a monthly data-entry session, and it means your quarter-end submission is just a review, not a reconstruction.
Plan for the First Quarter—and the Rest of the Year
The November deadline is your next quarterly submission, covering the period from April 6 to 5th October. If you miss it, you are finished yet but it’s another quarter that has slipped which just makes future catch up all the less likely.
To avoid that, work backwards from the deadline. Give yourself seven to ten days of buffer at the start of October. That means:
- Week 1: Confirm your scope, choose software, and set up your chart of accounts.
- Week 2: Migrate existing data and reconcile your bank transactions for April–June.
- Week 3: Reconcile July–September transactions and categorise any backlog.
- Week 4: Review the numbers, and submit your actual quarterly update.
This timeline works even if you’re starting from scratch. The hardest part is the first week—after that, the process becomes mechanical. And don’t forget that MTD isn’t a one-off event. You’ll have to do this every quarter, plus a final annual return. If you get the first one right this sets the tone for the rest.
One practical tip: use your bank feed. Most MTD software connects directly to your business bank account and pulls transactions automatically. That eliminates the most error-prone part of the process – manual data entry. If you’re using a personal account for your property business, it’s worth opening a separate business account now. It will save you hours of headache and make your submissions infinitely more accurate.
Don’t Let the Deadline Catch You Out
The November deadline is a forcing function. It’s the moment where ignoring MTD stops being an option and becomes a compliance problem. But with a structured 30-day plan, it’s also an opportunity to get your property finances in better shape than they’ve ever been.
You don’t need to be a tech wizard, and you don’t need to spend every waking hour on admin. You need a clear list, the right software, and a bit of discipline for the next month. If you’re reading this and feeling behind, that’s fine—you still have time. But only if you start now.
If you have finished reading this and still don’t know where to start just click here to book in a free initial consultation with our team.