I am very concerned about the impact of MTD on foreign property income
— The Independent Landlord, 28 October 2025
Gross, and added together: £30,000 of trade plus £30,000 of rent is over the £50,000 line.
Do not include employment (PAYE) income, a partnership profit share, dividends, State Pension or private pensions — none of them count towards qualifying income.
Checked against GOV.UK on 14 August 2026 · Applies from 6 April 2026 onwards.
“I am very concerned about the impact of MTD on foreign property income”
We hear this most. a landlord working out what counts towards the threshold, The Independent Landlord, 28 October 2025 — someone in the same position as you.
If the answer turns out to be yes, these are the dates you inherit. 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.
fifteen minutes, tonight, and it may end with you doing nothing at all
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.
Qualifying income is gross — the money that came in before any expenses — and you add your self-employment and your property together, not one at a time. That is the part that catches people: two businesses that are each under the threshold can be over it added up. Foreign lets count too, and they are a separate property business with its own quarterly updates.
Take a sole trader who also lets a flat, with £30,000 of turnover in the trade and £30,000 of rent, each before any expenses.
Neither business is over the £50,000 line on its own. Qualifying income is the two added together, and £30,000 plus £30,000, each under the line, is £60,000.
That total is over £50,000, so this person is in Making Tax Digital from 6 April 2026 and sends two sets of quarterly updates — one for the trade, one for the property business.
Change nothing except the expenses and the answer does not move. Qualifying income is measured before them, so a thin margin does not take you back out.
Nothing is sent anywhere and nothing is stored. To run your own two numbers against all three lines, use the checker at the top of this page, or the same one on the threshold page.
A landlord on a public blog wrote: I am very concerned about the impact of MTD on foreign property income. It is in the nature of the income that such properties need to be managed by a local agent
— and nobody answered him. Here is the answer, and the reason the question keeps being asked.
HMRC's qualifying income guidance counts UK and foreign property income together towards the one total. Its own eligibility checker does not ask you about foreign income at all. Both of those are true at the same time, and a reader who trusts the checker alone can come away with the wrong answer. We hold both GOV.UK pages, with the day we read them, and a foreign let is a separate property business with its own quarterly updates. On the software side, the products whose own pages say they cover a foreign let are marked as such in our table — no vendor comparison we read asks the question.
Property income here means UK and foreign. HMRC's own example is a UK sole trader who also rents out a property in France: both count towards the one total — what foreign property does to your MTD position.
This catches people out in both directions. A landlord with a large salary and one let property is measured on the rent alone — the salary never counts, however big it is. A part-time trader on a slim margin has qualifying income equal to the whole turnover, whatever the profit was.
HMRC assesses qualifying income for a tax year by checking the Self Assessment tax return you submitted in the previous tax year. If you are above the relevant threshold, HMRC writes to confirm. HMRC's guidance also says you should check your own qualifying income — the obligation does not depend on receiving a letter.
Income from a self-employment or property source that has ceased since your last return still counts towards qualifying income, if you have another continuing source. If all your self-employment and property sources have ceased, you must tell HMRC before the start of the next tax year — if you do not, you will need to use MTD.
For sole traders, HMRC will annualise qualifying income where it has the information. HMRC's example: six months of trading in your first tax year means the income is doubled to find the annual equivalent.
Going over the threshold does not sign you up. Signing up is a separate step, it is free, and it is done on GOV.UK with your Government Gateway user ID, for either the current tax year or the next one. HMRC checks the Self Assessment return you filed in the previous tax year and writes to confirm if you are above the threshold — but its guidance is blunt that the obligation is yours whether or not a letter arrives.
Since September 2026, HMRC has been signing up people who should be using MTD for 2026 to 2027 and have not signed up themselves, in stages, and contacting them afterwards. If that has happened to you, your overdue and upcoming quarterly updates are listed in your HMRC online account.
→ How to register for MTD, step by step · what to do if HMRC signed you up · the exemptions that take you back out
Every threshold and date here is taken from GOV.UK and from the statutory instrument that set it, with the regulation number and the day we read legislation.gov.uk recorded on our changes page. Where HMRC's own guidance and its own eligibility checker disagree, we show you both and give you the URLs. Nothing is sold on this page.
One three weeks before each of your four quarterly update deadlines — the dates are fixed and this site already works them out — and one when a threshold, a deadline or a rule on this page changes, with what changed and the date we read it. No newsletter, no offers, no third parties, and one click unsubscribes.
Nothing on this page is behind that field. Written and sent by Andrew at Axion Labs; reply to any of them and one person reads it. We store the address and nothing else — no name, no figures, no tracking — and no email has been sent from this list yet: the sending step is not built, and we would rather say so than imply a welcome message that is not coming.
Add up your own qualifying income →
No. Employment (PAYE) income is excluded. Only gross self-employment and property income count.
Before. It is turnover, taken from the tax return you submitted in the previous tax year.
Andrew at Axion Labs
Some people who land on this page turn out not to be in Making Tax Digital at all, and I'd rather you found that out here in two minutes than after paying for a year of software. The threshold is gross and it's combined — turnover, both sources added together, before expenses. If that puts you under the line, there's nothing to apply for and nobody to ring. Close the tab with my blessing.
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. 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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