Do I need an accountant for Making Tax Digital as a landlord? When yes, when no

By Patrick Roper ACA, ICAEW chartered accountant. Last reviewed 1 November 2026. Figures next checked by 1 December 2026.

No. Nothing in Making Tax Digital requires an accountant. You need recognised software, four quarterly updates a year and a year-end return, and a landlord with one or two properties, a bank feed and twenty minutes a quarter can do all of it alone. Paying someone makes sense when you have joint ownership, mixed sole and joint property, a trade as well as rent, a year with a sale or a refinance, or when you would rather not learn the software and own the deadlines.

What the two sides say

The NRLA's guide says you should be able to handle MTD for Income Tax yourself once you have read the guidance and signed up to recognised software, and it sells a training course for landlords who want to. Taxfix's MTD page is headed "Is your accountant ripping you off with MTD fees?" and, further down, answers its own question "Do I need an accountant for MTD?" with "Technically no". Both are right about the law. The question is only whether the work is worth your time.

When doing it yourself is enough

• One to three properties in your sole name, let through an agent or with rent paid to one account.
• No self-employment alongside the rent.
• A bank feed or a spreadsheet you already keep, so the quarter is a matter of checking categories.
• No sale, purchase, refinance or change of ownership in the year.
• You are happy to own four deadlines a year (7 August, 7 November, 7 February, 7 May) and the 31 January return.

On that profile the quarterly update is a summary of income and expenses, not a tax return. The software fills it from the categorised transactions and you press send. Your first-year quarterly updates, if you join in 6 April 2027, carry no penalty points, so a wobbly first quarter costs nothing.

When paying someone earns its fee

• Joint ownership. Each owner files their own updates on their own share, and HMRC's easement lets you report income quarterly and expenses at the year end for the joint property only. Getting the split and the easement right for two people is where mistakes happen.
• Rent plus a trade. Self-employment and property are separate income sources with their own updates: eight a year, not four.
• Finance costs. Mortgage interest on residential lets is a 20% tax credit at the year end, not an expense in the quarter. Software that treats it as an expense overstates the deduction.
• A year with an event. A sale brings capital gains tax with its own 60-day reporting; a refinance changes what interest is allowable; a property that stops being let changes your qualifying income for later years.
• You do not want to own the deadlines. From 2028/29 every late update is a penalty point and four points is £200. Some people pay to make the deadline somebody else's problem.

What a named accountant adds that software does not

Software files what it is given. A person checks what it is given: that the deposit returned to a tenant is not income, that the boiler was a repair and the extension was not, that the agent's fee and the rent it was netted from both appear, that the finance-cost credit is claimed at the year end. It also means a name on the return and someone who answers HMRC if HMRC asks. If none of that applies to you, use the software and keep the money.