If a letting agent collects your rent, it is easy to assume they will deal with Making Tax Digital too. Usually they will not. A letting agent manages the tenancy; unless you have authorised them as your tax agent with HMRC, the digital records, quarterly updates and tax return are yours to do, or your accountant's.
The practical problem is the monthly statement. It shows rent coming in and fees, repairs and other costs going out, and then a single net payment into your bank. Making Tax Digital needs the pieces, not the net figure. This guide shows how to get from one to the other.
Why the net payment is not enough
HMRC's guidance on digital records covers this case directly. If you only know your income after expenses have been taken off, you should ask for the full amount before expenses, record that as income, and record the expenses separately. The same rule matters twice:
- For the threshold. Your qualifying income is your rent before expenses, so the agent's fees do not reduce it. A portfolio that pays you £46,000 a year after £6,000 of management fees has £52,000 of qualifying income.
- For your records. Your quarterly update reports rent as income and the fees, repairs and other costs as expenses in their categories. If you only record the net payment, both totals are wrong, even though the profit may come out the same.
A worked example
Suppose your agent's statement for one month shows:
| Line on the statement | Amount | How to record it |
|---|---|---|
| Rent received | £1,500 | Income: rent |
| Management fee | £180 | Expense: legal, management and other professional fees |
| Plumber (repair to a leak) | £120 | Expense: property repairs and maintenance |
| Paid to you | £1,200 | Not a separate record; it is what is left |
Your records show £1,500 of income and £300 of expenses, not £1,200 of income. Use the dates on the statement for when the rent was received and when each cost was paid.
What to ask your agent for
- Monthly statements that itemise every line: rent received per property, each fee, each contractor invoice paid on your behalf, and any money held back.
- Copies of invoices for work they arrange. You still need to keep supporting documents, as you do for Self Assessment.
- A year-end statement that ties back to the monthly ones. It helps when you make year-end adjustments before your tax return.
- Statements soon after month end. Records for a period have to exist before you send that period's update, so a statement that arrives six weeks late can push you up against the deadline.
How much detail you need
Making Tax Digital uses the same income and expense categories as Self Assessment. If your total UK property turnover is under £90,000, HMRC lets you categorise more simply, but residential landlords must still record whether an expense is a residential finance cost, such as mortgage interest, because those costs get relief differently. Capital spending, such as a new extension, is not a repair and needs handling at the year end. Our guide to allowable expenses for landlords goes through the categories.
Who can file for you
Only someone you have authorised with HMRC can send updates or your tax return on your behalf. For Making Tax Digital there are two kinds of tax agent:
- a main agent, usually your accountant, who can do almost everything you can, including submitting your tax return;
- any number of supporting agents, such as a bookkeeper, who can send quarterly updates but cannot submit your tax return or see your full tax calculation.
If several people are involved, one combined update must still go to HMRC for each business and each period. All your UK lettings count as one UK property business, even if two different agents manage them, so someone has to bring both sets of figures together before the update is sent.
If different agents manage different properties
This is common with portfolios. Each agent sends you statements for their properties, but you send one UK property update covering all of them. The simplest approach is to record each statement as it arrives, so the quarter's totals build up in one place, rather than trying to merge spreadsheets the night before a deadline.
Money the agent holds back
Agents often keep a float for repairs or hold money back at the end of a month. What counts is when rent was received and when costs were paid, not when the balance reached your account. If you are unsure how an unusual item should be treated, such as a deposit kept for damage, check HMRC's guidance on working out rental income or ask an adviser.
Doing it in VoxaMTD
You can connect the bank account your agent pays into through open banking, add entries by hand from each statement, or upload a CSV or Excel file of statement lines. However the entries arrive, check that your rent shows the full amount and that the agent's fees and costs appear as expenses in the right categories before you send the update. VoxaMTD sends the UK property quarterly update directly to HMRC, and sending it is free. If you have an accountant, they can follow your quarterly figures and deadlines through VoxaMTD's agent portal; the updates themselves are sent from your own account.
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This guide is general information based on HMRC's published guidance as at 27 September 2026. It is not tax advice. Check GOV.UK or speak to a tax adviser about your own circumstances.