Your tax return stops being a January problem.
It becomes an August problem, a November problem, a February problem and a May problem too. Four quarterly updates and a final declaration, sent from software, every tax year.
Four deadlines you didn't used to have
That last one is the trap. A quarterly update isn't three months of figures. It's everything since 6 April, rebuilt and resent. Get August wrong and you're still carrying it in February.
Qualifying income means your gross income from property and self-employment, before expenses. Check whether you need to sign up on GOV.UK.
Late updates earn penalty points, and enough points lead to a fine. HMRC has confirmed there are no penalties for late quarterly updates in the 2026/27 tax year. From 6 April 2027 the points system applies in full.
You could do this yourself
Here is what "yourself" actually means. Four times a year.
On your own
- Trawl the statement, line by line
- Work out what "TRF 4471" was in June
- Decide: repair, or improvement?
- Halve everything you own jointly
- Pull out what was personal, not portfolio
- Gross up the agent's net payment by hand
- Split the insurance across six properties
- Rebuild the year-to-date totals from scratch
- Key it all into bridging software
- Hope
With RentalForce
- Bank statements imported in a few clicks
- Repeat payments categorised by your own rules
- Repair or improvement set by category, every time
- Your ownership share applied automatically
- Personal items kept out of your figures
- Agent payments grossed up, balanced to the penny
- Portfolio-wide costs shared across properties
- Year-to-date figures built for you
- Exported for your bridging software Live
Sent straight to HMRC Coming 2027 - Check the figures. Approve them.
Nothing leaves RentalForce that you haven't seen
Software that quietly guesses on your behalf isn't reassuring. It's the thing that gets you a letter. RentalForce does the work, then stops and waits for you.
Every transaction carries a review flag. Live
Until you've signed it off, it can't reach a report, an export or a submission. Automation fills in the fields; you keep the judgement.
You see the exact figures before they go. Live
Every figure totalled into its HMRC category, with your income, expenses and profit for the year so far, so anything odd stands out before it goes.
Every figure traces back to your bank statement. Live
The original bank line is kept unchanged, and split payments must add back to it to the penny. A full history of every submission to HMRC follows when direct submission arrives. Coming 2027
Got something wrong? Fix it and send again. Live
Correct the transaction and your year-to-date figures rebuild automatically, ready for your next update. Because every update replaces the last, corrections are built into how Making Tax Digital works. A mistake is a Tuesday afternoon, not a crisis.
Most tax apps stop at the return
Compliance-only software leaves you keeping a second system for the actual business of being a landlord: the properties, the certificates, the jobs, the tenants. RentalForce is that system. Your tax figures are what falls out of running it properly.
You still own the decisions. You just stop doing the work.
We keep the year straight, so that when a deadline arrives there's nothing to dread. Only something to check.
- Check if you're eligible for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (GOV.UK)
- Send quarterly updates (GOV.UK)
- Penalties for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (GOV.UK)
This guide is general information about Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, not tax advice. Rules and dates can change, so check GOV.UK or speak to an accountant or tax adviser about your own position. RentalForce is not currently HMRC recognised software. Direct submission to HMRC is planned for 2027.