Compliance
How does Making Tax Digital work for jointly owned property?
Last updated 12 August 2026 · Reviewed by Nick Thorpe, founder
The short answer
Only your share counts. Making Tax Digital tests each owner separately on their share of the gross rental income, so a couple owning 50/50 halves the figure against the £50,000, £30,000 and £20,000 thresholds. If you are mandated, an easement lets joint owners report income only in quarterly updates.
Joint ownership is the most common shape for a landlord couple in Yorkshire, and it is also where Making Tax Digital gets misjudged in both directions. Some couples assume the whole rent counts against each of them and panic early. Others assume a spouse’s name on the deeds keeps them out entirely. Neither is right.
Your share is the test
HMRC tests qualifying income person by person, and for jointly owned property that means your share of the gross rent. A portfolio grossing £48,000 owned 50/50 is £24,000 each: both owners sit outside the £30,000 threshold that arrives in April 2027, and both come in from April 2028 when it falls to £20,000.
The arithmetic moves fast with portfolio size. Six properties at the Kirklees average rent of £759 a month (ONS, March 2026) gross about £54,600, which is £27,300 each at 50/50: out for 2027, in for 2028. Eight at that average is £72,900, or £36,400 each, and both owners are in from April 2027. Remember the test also adds any self-employment turnover you have personally, so a part-time trade alongside the rent can tip one owner in while the other stays out.
For married couples and civil partners the split is treated as 50/50 unless you have formally declared a different beneficial ownership to HMRC. Unmarried joint owners are tested on their actual shares. Which regime you are in changes the sums, so this is one to confirm with your accountant rather than assume.
The easements worth knowing
Two concessions make joint ownership easier inside Making Tax Digital. First, joint owners can choose to report just their rental income in quarterly updates and leave the expense detail to the year end, which strips most of the bookkeeping out of the quarters. Second, if you only ever receive notice of your share after expenses have been deducted, HMRC assesses that net figure as your qualifying income rather than making you reconstruct a gross.
Each mandated owner still files their own updates from their own software; there is no joint return. The dates are the same for everyone and live in our Making Tax Digital deadlines guide.
Two owners, one set of numbers
The practical problem for couples is not the tax, it is producing two clean copies of the same property’s figures. A managed property solves that by default: our owner statements itemise rent received, our fee, and maintenance at contractor cost every month, and the split is whatever your ownership says it is. Both accountants, or both copies of the software, work from the same lines. The wider regime is in does Making Tax Digital apply to landlords, and whether the 2027 threshold reaches you is in will Making Tax Digital apply to you in 2027.
We are not accountants and this is not tax advice. Ownership splits, declarations and what counts as your share are exactly the questions your accountant should confirm before you rely on any figure here.