MTD for jointly owned property: shares, Form 17 and what each owner sends

Short answer: Each joint owner is looked at on their own share of the rental income, not the whole rent. GOV.UK lets joint landlords send income only in their quarterly updates and report their share of expenses after the tax year ends. Spouses and civil partners are normally treated as owning the income 50/50 unless they have made a Form 17 declaration.

Your share is what counts

HMRC decides whether you must use MTD from your qualifying income: your total self-employment and property income, before expenses. GOV.UK says “your share of the property income will count towards your qualifying income”. Its own example has two siblings sharing a £50,000 property equally: each has qualifying income of £25,000. More on this in what counts as qualifying income.

The test uses your Self Assessment return for an earlier year, and the thresholds are £50,000 from April 2026, £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. See the £30,000 group or use the MTD checker. Add your share of rent to any sole trader turnover or sole-owned property income, because they count together.

If you only know your share after expenses, GOV.UK says HMRC will assess that net figure for qualifying income. For your digital records, GOV.UK says to ask for the full income before expenses and record the income and expenses separately.

How the share is worked out

Spouses and civil partners who live together are treated by default as owning jointly held property income equally, half each, even if the legal ownership is unequal. HMRC’s manual says only a Form 17 declaration can change that.

Form 17 is for couples whose beneficial interests really are unequal. GOV.UK says you need evidence such as a declaration or deed. HMRC’s manual says separated couples cannot use it, because the 50/50 rule only applies to couples living together. If the split is something like 60/40, the income is then taxed that way.

Other joint owners, such as friends or siblings, are taxed on their actual entitlement.

Does each owner send their own updates?

Yes in practice. GOV.UK says you only need digital records for your share of income and expenses from jointly let properties, and quarterly updates are sent per person. Two owners who are both in scope each send their own. An owner below the threshold does not have to, though they may join voluntarily.

You must use one software product for property updates. GOV.UK says a landlord cannot use more than one product for quarterly updates of property income or expenses.

GOV.UK does not spell out in one sentence that “each owner files separately”. That follows from the share-based wording and the fact that MTD is tied to your own Self Assessment record.

The joint property simplification

GOV.UK says that for jointly let property you can choose to include either property income and expenses, or property income only. If you leave expenses out, you must report them after the tax year ends, by resending your fourth quarterly update before you submit your tax return. The quarterly update direction lists the income-only items: total rent, other property income, premiums for the grant of a lease, and reverse premiums and inducements.

If you also solely own other properties, include both income and expenses for those in each update. You can also keep less detailed records for the joint property, for example one entry per income category per update period and one per expense category per tax year.

The trade-off is that your quarterly figures show a larger profit than the final position. Your final tax bill is based on the year-end totals.

Worked example: Priya and Tom

Example: Priya and Tom are married, live together and own a flat. They have not made a Form 17 declaration, so the 50/50 default applies. The flat earns £36,000 rent in the year, and costs £8,000 (repairs and agent fees). All figures are made up.

	Priya	Tom
Share of rent	£18,000	£18,000
Share of expenses	£4,000	£4,000
Other income	£15,000 sole trader turnover	£0 (employed, PAYE)
Qualifying income	£33,000	£18,000

If these were their 2025-26 figures, Priya’s £33,000 is over £30,000, so she would start MTD on 6 April 2027. Tom’s £18,000 is under the threshold, so he would not be mandated at that stage. Later thresholds depend on later returns.

Priya picks income only for the flat. Her cumulative rent share is £4,500 in update 1 (6 April to 5 July), £9,000 in update 2, £13,500 in update 3 and £18,000 in update 4. After the year ends she resends update 4 to add her £4,000 share of expenses, before submitting her return. Her trade is reported in full, with income and expenses, in each update.

If one of them pays all the bills, the question is who actually bears the costs and how the 50/50 split or Form 17 shares apply. Take advice on that.

Letting agents

The GOV.UK MTD pages we checked do not mention letting agents. Your agent’s statements are source records for your own digital records. If you use the agent’s statement, you still need to keep your records digitally and send your updates through compatible software. An accountant acting for you can send the updates, but that is a separate matter from a letting agent collecting rent.

See what goes in an update for the categories, and cumulative updates for how the totals build up.

Sources

• Work out your qualifying income for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, GOV.UK
• Find out if and when you need to use MTD for Income Tax, GOV.UK
• Create digital records, GOV.UK
• Send quarterly updates, GOV.UK
• Quarterly update direction, GOV.UK
• Declare beneficial interests in joint property and income (Form 17), GOV.UK
• TSEM9814, 50/50 rule, HMRC manual
• TSEM9844, who can make a Form 17 declaration, HMRC manual