If you're a landlord, this year's self-assessment probably looks different to the last one, and it's not just you misremembering the rules. Two big changes have landed, and if nobody's walked you through them yet, here's the short version.
Making Tax Digital is no longer theoretical
From April 2026, if your combined property and self-employment income is over £50,000, you're required to keep digital records and send HMRC quarterly updates through compatible software, rather than one return a year. That's gross income, not profit, so it catches more landlords than the number suggests.
The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027, so even if you're not affected yet, you will be soon. There's a soft landing on penalties for late quarterly updates this year, but the final declaration and payment deadlines are still firm, so it's not a free pass to ignore it.
If you own property personally rather than through a limited company, this applies to you. If you're not already on digital software with a proper quarterly routine, now's the time to sort it, not next January.
Furnished holiday lets lost their tax advantages
The furnished holiday lettings regime was scrapped from 6 April 2025, so this is the first tax year most FHL owners are filing without it. In practice that means your holiday let is now taxed the same as any other rental property: mortgage interest only gets relief as a 20% tax credit rather than a full deduction, capital allowances on furniture and equipment are gone (you're back to replacement of domestic items relief instead), and some of the capital gains reliefs that made holiday lets attractive have disappeared too, though there are transitional rules worth checking if you're planning to sell.
If you've got a holiday let and haven't reviewed what this means for your actual tax bill, it's worth doing before you're staring at a number you didn't expect in January.
What to do now
Work out your combined gross income to see where you sit against the MTD thresholds. If you're close to £50,000, get digital record-keeping sorted rather than waiting to be told. If you have a furnished holiday let, get the numbers re-run under the new rules so there are no surprises. And if mortgage interest is a big chunk of your costs, remember it's still capped at the 20% credit, not full relief, whatever type of let you have.
None of this is complicated once someone's walked you through it against your own numbers, which is exactly where I come in. If you'd rather hand the whole thing over, book a discovery call and we'll get your self-assessment sorted properly, MTD-ready and all.
