“Can anybody give advice to help me, apart from selling both properties?”
We hear this most. a landlord of thirty years, two flats, OpenRent Community forum, 31 July 2026 — someone in the same position as you.
Yes, it counts — and not on its own. HMRC adds your foreign property income to your UK property and self-employment income and tests the total. Its own published example is a UK sole trader who rents out a property in France: both count.
Then it gets stranger. Your overseas letting is a separate business from your UK letting, so it gets its own digital records and its own quarterly update — two submissions on the same deadline, not one.
Enter your gross income and the tax year. Runs entirely in your browser — no sign-up, and no figure leaves your device.
Check if I am in MTD → How many updates do I file? → Free forever · no cookies, no trackers · what counts as qualifying incomeFree to read. No sign-up, no cookies, no trackers. We never ask for your name, National Insurance number, or tax figures — the tools on this site run entirely in your browser.
Every GOV.UK and HMRC source on this page was read at source on 2 September 2026 · the quarterly-update rules come from our GOV.UK corpus, last checked 7 October 2026 · the deadline table is generated from SI 2026/336
Yes — foreign property income counts towards the qualifying income that puts you into Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, and it is added to your UK property and self-employment income rather than tested on its own. But your foreign property is a separate business from your UK one, with its own digital records and its own quarterly update. This page sets out what HMRC actually requires, sourced to GOV.UK and read on 2 September 2026.
If your rental income puts you in, these are your dates. Your next quarterly update is due 7 November 2026, and because updates are cumulative it covers 6 April to 5 October 2026 — so it also catches up 7 August 2026 if you missed it. Your tax return for 2026 to 2027 is due 31 January 2028, and that one is still in the points system. And from September 2026 HMRC has been signing people up itself, in stages, if they had not signed up.
You are not alone, and this is the measured version of that sentence. HMRC put 864,000 sole traders and landlords in scope for this tax year (HMRC, 5 February 2026), and reported on 12 August 2026 that 436,000 had sent a first quarterly update and 570,000 had signed up. We have not subtracted one from the other to make a "how many are behind" headline — they were published six months apart and count different things — but you can see the size of the room you are standing in.
one sitting, tonight, with your rent statements to hand
None of those three steps costs money. Anyone charging you to do them is selling you something HMRC gives away.
Where these come from, on GOV.UK: quarterly updates and their deadlines · the tax return · who has to use MTD, and when · working out qualifying income · the recognised-software finder · what to do if HMRC signed you up.
| Qualifying income | On the tax return for | You must use MTD from |
|---|---|---|
| Over £50,000 | 2024 to 2025 | 6 April 2026 — already in force |
| Over £30,000 | 2025 to 2026 | 6 April 2027 |
| Over £20,000 | 2026 to 2027 | 6 April 2028 |
| £20,000 or less | — | Automatically exempt, unless your circumstances change |
Qualifying income is gross self-employment income plus gross property income, before expenses, taken from the tax return you filed in the previous tax year. Sources: find out if and when you need to use MTD and work out your qualifying income (GOV.UK).
HMRC publishes the official list of software recognised for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, and its own guidance says plainly that “free products are available for those with simple tax affairs”. We drove that finder ourselves on 1 September 2026 and it returns recognised products costing £0 — for sole traders and for landlords, including bridging tools that submit straight from a spreadsheet you already keep. We take no commission from any of them, we rank none of them, and this site carries no affiliate links.
HMRC's official software finder (gov.uk) · how bridging software works · the free two-number check · your own four dates
Signing up for Making Tax Digital is free at GOV.UK. So is the checker on this page, and so is every answer on this site.
It does, and the wording is not ambiguous. GOV.UK's guidance on working out your qualifying income says HMRC looks at the Self Assessment tax return you submitted for the 2024 to 2025 tax year, and that this will include your self-employment income and your UK and foreign property income.
The guidance gives this example in terms: you could be a sole trader in the UK and rent out a property in France — and “in this example, both income sources will count towards your qualifying income”.
So the test is not run per country and not run per property. It is one number: gross self-employment income plus gross property income, UK and foreign together, before expenses, taken from the tax return you filed for the previous tax year.
HMRC's Foreign notes for the SA106 say you are “taxable on your overseas rental income, even if you do not bring that income to the UK”, unless you claim relief under the foreign income and gains regime. Rent that never leaves a Spanish or French bank account is still income on your UK return, and still part of your qualifying income.
GOV.UK defines foreign income as “anything from outside England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland” — and states that the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are classed as foreign. A let in Jersey or Douglas is a foreign property business, not a UK one.
The same guidance says that where you are not a UK tax resident, “foreign property income and self-employment income that you have not declared on your UK Self Assessment tax return will not count towards your qualifying income”. HMRC's example: tax resident in Spain, renting out a property in the UK, a sole trader in Spain — only the UK property income counts.
HMRC's Property Income Manual puts the underlying rule plainly: the profits of an overseas property business are chargeable to Income Tax only if the business is carried on by a UK resident.
This is the part that surprises landlords who have read the UK rules and assumed they carry across. They do not.
| UK property | Foreign property | |
|---|---|---|
| How many businesses? | All your UK properties are one UK property business | All your foreign properties are one foreign property business — a different business from the UK one |
| Records per property? | No. GOV.UK: you do not need separate digital records for each UK property | Yes. Separate digital records for each individual foreign property you receive income from |
| Jointly let | Your share forms part of the same single UK business | Separate records relating to your share of income and expenses, per property |
| Quarterly updates | One update for the whole UK business | One update for the whole foreign business — so two updates in total, same deadline |
Sources: GOV.UK “Create digital records” and “Send quarterly updates”, both read 2 September 2026. The quarterly-update rule is stated as: “You need to send your quarterly updates to HMRC every 3 months for each self-employment and property business you have.”
Both halves of that are true and people drop one of them. You keep a separate digital record set for each individual foreign property — but GOV.UK is explicit that all of your foreign properties are legally treated as one foreign property business, so your compatible software adds those separate records together into a single quarterly update for the foreign business.
Three flats in Portugal is three record sets and one foreign update. Three flats in Portugal plus a house in Leeds is three foreign record sets, one UK record set, and two quarterly updates every deadline.
HMRC's Property Income Manual states that the profits or losses of an overseas property business “are not combined with the profits or losses of a UK property business; they are taxed separately and losses on one cannot be set against profits on the other”. A loss-making year on the Spanish flat does not reduce the tax on the Leeds house.
MTD lets you categorise your digital records in less detail for a tax year if your UK property turnover or self-employment turnover is under £90,000 — or if you have foreign income. And GOV.UK adds, flatly: “The turnover threshold does not apply to foreign property income.” The simpler categorisation is available on the foreign business whatever the rent adds up to.
Your quarterly update is in pounds, so your records have to be. HMRC's Foreign notes for the SA106 give the instruction directly: “convert the income into UK pounds using the exchange rate at the time the income arose”, and point you to HMRC's published yearly exchange rates if you are not sure.
Note what that is not. It is not the rate on the day you moved the money to the UK, and it is not the rate at the end of the quarter. It is the rate when the income arose. Whatever basis you use, apply it consistently, and the safest habit is to write the rate you used next to the amount at the moment you record it — while you can still remember where it came from.
Normally the country the property is in taxes the letting profit too. HMRC's manual describes that double charge being relieved by deducting the overseas tax paid on the property income from the UK tax due on the same income — under a double taxation treaty where one exists, and under separate UK rules where one does not. That relief is claimed on your tax return, not in a quarterly update: quarterly updates carry income and expense totals, with no tax adjustments in them at all.
Nothing about a foreign property moves a date. The quarterly update periods are cumulative — each one runs from the start of the tax year, not from the end of the last quarter — and both your updates are due on the same day.
| Update | Period covered (standard) | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| 1st update | 6 April 2026 to 5 July 2026 | 7 August 2026 |
| 2nd update | 6 April 2026 to 5 October 2026 | 7 November 2026 |
| 3rd update | 6 April 2026 to 5 January 2027 | 7 February 2027 |
| 4th update | 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 | 7 May 2027 |
Generated from The Income Tax (Digital Obligations) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/336), reg 12 Table 1 — the same tested date logic behind our deadline calculator. Two of these four dates fall at a weekend and nothing in the regulations moves them. Choosing calendar update periods moves the period boundaries, not the deadlines — see standard or calendar periods. Your tax return for 2026 to 2027 is still due 31 January 2028.
Everything above is free and stays free. The kit is the bookkeeping half done for you: a spreadsheet already carrying HMRC's quarterly update categories as dropdowns, a Quarterly Summary that adds itself up cumulatively for all four deadlines in both standard and calendar modes, three built-in error catchers, a filled worked example, an 11-page walkthrough naming five free HMRC-recognised tools, and a 2026/27 deadline calendar file.
The landlord spreadsheet in the kit is built for a UK property business. It has no foreign-property section, no currency column, and no second sheet for a foreign business — its categories are the UK property ones. If your only letting is abroad, or you have both, the way it works is to keep a second copy of the sheet for the foreign business and enter amounts already converted to pounds. That works, and the cumulative quarterly totals and the deadline logic are identical — but it is a second copy you manage, not a feature we built, and you should know that before you buy rather than after.
The kit also does not submit anything to HMRC. Only software on HMRC's recognised list can do that, and HMRC-recognised products costing £0 exist — including bridging tools that submit straight from a spreadsheet. If your records are already in order, the free pages on this site are genuinely enough. That is why they come first.
→ HMRC's official software finder (gov.uk) · the full catch-up page
Sale price until 2 November
One payment. No subscription. No monthly fee.
Free updates for the whole of 2026/27. If HMRC changes the quarterly update categories, the deadlines or the free-tools list this tax year, we update the file in your Etsy download and message you through Etsy to tell you what changed and the date we read it. No extra charge, ever.
One business, one set of books.
Sale price until 2 November
One payment. No subscription. No monthly fee.
Free updates for the whole of 2026/27. If HMRC changes the quarterly update categories, the deadlines or the free-tools list this tax year, we update the file in your Etsy download and message you through Etsy to tell you what changed and the date we read it. No extra charge, ever.
Rental income, one or many properties.
Sale price until 2 November
One payment. No subscription. No monthly fee.
Free updates for the whole of 2026/27. If HMRC changes the quarterly update categories, the deadlines or the free-tools list this tax year, we update the file in your Etsy download and message you through Etsy to tell you what changed and the date we read it. No extra charge, ever.
Self-employed AND letting property — two income sources, two update streams.
Free updates for 2026/27: if HMRC changes the quarterly update categories, the deadlines, or the free-tools list during this tax year, we update the file in your Etsy download and message you through Etsy to tell you what changed and the date we read it. No extra charge, ever. One payment. No subscription. No monthly fee. Instant download, sold through Etsy — we never see your card details.
Yes. GOV.UK states that the qualifying income HMRC checks on your 2024 to 2025 tax return includes your self-employment income and your UK and foreign property income. HMRC's own worked example is someone who is a sole trader in the UK and rents out a property in France: both income sources count towards qualifying income. Qualifying income is measured before expenses.
Yes. All your UK properties are one UK property business and all your foreign properties are one foreign property business, and GOV.UK requires a quarterly update for each self-employment and property business you have. So a landlord with a UK flat and a Spanish flat sends two quarterly updates on each deadline, not one.
Yes. GOV.UK requires separate digital records for each individual foreign property you receive income from, and separate records for your share where a foreign property is jointly let. This is the opposite of the UK rule, where one or more UK properties are one business and no per-property records are needed. Your software then combines the separate foreign records into one quarterly update.
HMRC's Foreign notes for the SA106 say to convert the income into UK pounds using the exchange rate at the time the income arose, and point to HMRC's published yearly exchange rates if you are unsure. Your records need to be in pounds because your quarterly update is.
Axion Labs
We've read a lot of landlord forums while building this, and the saddest posts aren't about money. They're from people with one or two flats they've held for thirty years, wondering whether to sell up rather than learn a spreadsheet. If that's roughly where you are: this is a smaller job than it looks from the outside, it can be done for nothing, and selling a home over it would be a heavy price for a form. Read the free pages first.
General information about UK tax rules, not tax advice. Your own circumstances and HMRC's official guidance govern your position. If you are unsure, speak to an accountant or contact HMRC. Every page on this site names the GOV.UK source it came from and the date we checked it. Tax rules change — if this page is more than a few months old, check the GOV.UK pages linked above. Found an error? Email hello@getaxionlabs.com and we will correct it.
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