In short: If you live in the UK and rent out property overseas, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax almost certainly affects you. HMRC treats each overseas property separately from your UK property, which means more submissions, separate records, and a few rules that do not apply to UK landlords at all. This guide walks through what changes, when, and how to keep it manageable.
Yes, if your total qualifying income crosses the threshold. MTD for Income Tax is being phased in by income level: from 6 April 2026, total qualifying income over £50,000; from 6 April 2027, over £30,000; from 6 April 2028, over £20,000.
The key point for overseas landlords is that the threshold is based on your combined gross income before expenses, added across all your property and any self-employment. Your UK rents and your overseas rents are counted together to decide whether you are in. HMRC works this out from your most recent Self Assessment return and writes to the people affected.
A common misconception is that small foreign holdings are exempt. They are not. A single apartment in Spain or France counts towards the threshold just like a UK buy-to-let does.
This is the most important thing to understand. Under MTD for Income Tax your UK property and your overseas property are not reported together.
So a landlord with UK property and one property abroad submits eight quarterly updates a year. Every additional overseas property adds another four. A single Final Declaration at the year-end pulls everything back together into one tax position.
You keep the records separately and you submit them separately. Only at the Final Declaration does it all come together.
Quarterly updates for a standard tax year are due by the 7th of the month after each quarter ends: Quarter 1 by 7 August, Quarter 2 by 7 November, Quarter 3 by 7 February, and Quarter 4 by 7 May. Your Final Declaration, which replaces the old Self Assessment return, is due by 31 January after the tax year ends. If your software supports it, you can elect to report on calendar quarters instead of the standard quarters.
Beyond reporting each property separately, overseas lettings come with rules UK-only landlords never meet.
Currency. Rent and expenses arrive in another currency but must be reported to HMRC in pounds sterling, using HMRC's published exchange rates.
Foreign tax. If you have already paid tax abroad on the same rental income, you may be able to claim Foreign Tax Credit Relief so you are not taxed twice. You track the foreign tax paid through the year and finalise it at the year-end.
Holiday lets have changed. The Furnished Holiday Lettings regime was abolished from April 2025. A holiday villa abroad that used to sit in its own category now counts as ordinary overseas property income for MTD purposes.
Records by property. You need clean digital records of income and expenses for each overseas property, kept apart from your UK records, so the totals roll up into the correct submission.
The honest answer is more admin than a UK-only landlord faces. Annual shoeboxes of receipts no longer satisfy HMRC's rules. You need digital records kept through the year, in compatible software, with each property kept properly separate. The upside is that this is exactly the kind of repetitive, rules-heavy work software is built to take off your hands.
SimplifyMTD is built for UK landlords with property at home and abroad. It reports each of your overseas properties separately, the way HMRC requires, runs the quarterly updates for each one, and carries everything through to your Final Declaration. For currency, it directs you to HMRC's published exchange rates so you convert foreign amounts to sterling the way HMRC expects, and it keeps track of the foreign tax you have paid for your year-end relief.
If overseas property is the reason your tax has started to feel complicated, that is exactly what we built SimplifyMTD for. Take a look at how it handles your foreign property.
If your gross rental income crosses the threshold for the relevant year, yes. The number of properties does not matter; the income level does.
Four a year for your UK property business, plus four a year for each overseas property, plus one Final Declaration that combines them all.
Often not. Foreign Tax Credit Relief is designed to prevent double taxation where a double-taxation agreement applies. You track the foreign tax paid and claim relief at the year-end.
Since the Furnished Holiday Lettings rules were abolished from April 2025, it is treated as ordinary overseas property income for MTD.
You must keep digital records and submit through HMRC-recognised software. A spreadsheet on its own does not connect to HMRC; you need compatible software to make the submissions.