Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) applies to people, not properties. That is the point joint landlords need to get right before the second quarterly update deadline on 7 November 2026.
A jointly owned property can produce one rent payment, one letting-agent statement and one set of running costs. The tax records are still individual. One owner may be inside MTD while the other is not. The owners may also have unequal shares, or the rent may be paid into only one account.
1. Test each owner separately
Each owner works out their own qualifying income by adding their share of property income to any self-employment income they have.
For most landlords, qualifying income means gross rent before expenses, not taxable profit. The first MTD phase applies from 6 April 2026 to people whose 2024 to 2025 Self Assessment return showed qualifying income of more than £50,000. The threshold falls to more than £30,000 from April 2027, then to more than £20,000 from April 2028.
Take a property producing £30,000 of annual rent and owned equally by two people. The normal starting point is £15,000 for each owner. If one owner also has £40,000 of self-employment turnover, their combined qualifying income is £55,000. The other owner may remain outside that phase.
2. Do not let the bank account decide the tax split
The account receiving the rent is evidence of where the cash went. It does not, by itself, decide who is taxable on the income.
A jointly owned property may pay all rent into one owner's account for convenience. That does not automatically make all the rent theirs. Equally, paying a repair from one owner's card does not necessarily move the whole expense onto that person's tax record.
The split should follow the legal and tax position. Spouses and civil partners who live together are normally taxed equally on jointly owned property income unless a valid Form 17 declaration, backed by supporting evidence, reflects a different beneficial split. Other co-owners should also make sure the reported split reflects the real ownership arrangement.
3. Keep digital records for the right share
HMRC says a joint landlord only needs to create digital records relating to their own share of the income and expenses. They do not have to digitally link their records to the other owner's records. HMRC's rules for jointly owned property are more flexible than the standard MTD record-keeping rules; our fuller MTD guide for joint landlords sets out how the exceptions work in practice.
That can make the bookkeeping much simpler. One owner, bookkeeper or accountant can maintain a master property schedule and allocate the figures to each owner's records. A spreadsheet can use separate tabs or linked calculations. Some property software can apply ownership percentages automatically.
The split still needs to be clear. Recording the full property figures in both owners' submissions would double-count them. Recording everything under one owner would miss the other person's share.
4. Know when to use the joint-property easement
Joint landlords have more record-keeping flexibility than many realise.
For quarterly updates, an owner can choose to include their share of both property income and expenses, or their share of the property income only. If joint-property expenses are left out during the year, they still have to be brought in after the tax year ends and before the tax return is submitted.
Joint landlords can also use less detailed digital records for jointly let property. For example, they may be able to create one record for an income category covering the update period, and one record for an expense category covering the tax year.
Agent statements, invoices, mortgage information and the ownership calculation still need to be kept. The easement changes how totals can be recorded and reported. It does not remove the need to know where those totals came from.
5. Work from the letting-agent statement, not just the payment
A letting agent will often issue one statement for the property. It may show gross rent, management fees, repairs, retained balances and the net amount paid out.
The owners' records should start from the underlying income and expenses, then apply the ownership split. They should not simply divide the net bank transfer and call the result rental income.
For example, if an agent collects £2,000 of rent, deducts £200 of fees and transfers £1,800 to one owner's bank account, a 50:50 split would normally start with £1,000 of rent and £100 of agent fees for each owner.
This is why the person keeping the MTD records needs the agent statement, not only the bank feed. The bank feed cannot show figures deducted before the payment arrived.
6. Add costs that sit outside the agent statement
Mortgage interest, insurance, professional fees and repairs paid directly by an owner may never appear on the letting-agent statement. They still need to be picked up in the bookkeeping.
Mortgage payments need particular care. For an individual residential landlord, the interest element is a restricted finance cost and capital repayment is not a property expense. HMRC allows a mixed capital-and-revenue payment to be recorded in full and adjusted before the tax return is finalised, but separating the interest as the records are built gives a more useful tax estimate.
Where one owner pays a shared cost, the records should distinguish between who physically paid it and how the cost belongs in the joint property calculation. Otherwise, convenience payments between owners can accidentally change the tax split from one quarter to the next.
7. Check who is authorised to send each update
One person can do the administration, but the submissions remain individual.
Each owner who is required to use MTD has their own obligation. Their quarterly update must be sent for the correct taxpayer and must contain that taxpayer's share. One successful submission does not cover the co-owner.
If an accountant is filing the updates, the software connection and HMRC authorisation should be checked before the deadline, especially where a landlord has changed accountant, bought or sold property, started self-employment, or moved from paper records to software during the tax year.
A joint-landlord check before 7 November
Before the second update, joint owners should be able to answer these questions:
· What is each owner's documented share of the property income? · Does a spouse or civil-partner case rely on the normal 50:50 rule or a valid Form 17 position?
· Which owners are within MTD for 2026 to 2027?
· Do the records start from gross rent and the separate deductions on the agent statement?
· Have costs paid outside the agent been included and allocated consistently?
· Will joint-property expenses be included during the year, or brought in after year-end under the income-only easement?
· Who is authorised to send each owner's update?
If the August figures used the wrong ownership share, correct the underlying digital records. Quarterly updates are cumulative, so the November update covers the tax year to date and can include corrections without the August update being resent.
HMRC will not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates in the 2026 to 2027 tax year. The updates still need to be sent before the tax return can be submitted, and the normal tax return and payment deadlines still matter.
The problem comes when one property-level set of figures is mistaken for one taxpayer's records. Establish the ownership split once, keep the underlying records and make sure every required submission is made for the right owner.
