Landlord Tax Deductions UK 2026/27: The Complete List of Allowable Expenses

Knowing exactly what you can deduct is the single biggest lever an individual landlord still controls. Since Section 24 removed the deduction for mortgage interest, allowable expenses are where most of the legitimate tax planning now sits. This guide is the complete list of landlord tax deductions for the 2026/27 tax year, including the grey areas that trip up even experienced landlords, with the relevant statute and HMRC manual references so you can check the position yourself.

The legal basis for all of this is ITTOIA 2005 s.272, which applies the trading-income deduction rules to a property business for accounts drawn up under generally accepted accounting practice. The core test for almost every expense is whether it was incurred wholly and exclusively for the property business. With Making Tax Digital for Income Tax now live for landlords above £50,000 from 6 April 2026, keeping clean digital records of these deductions matters more than it ever has.

What expenses can you claim against rental income?

Every cost that is wholly and exclusively for the letting, and nothing else. The allowable expenses for rental income fall into nine categories in 2026/27: property running costs, repairs, professional fees, advertising, finance costs (relieved as a credit, not a deduction, for individuals), travel at 55p a mile, office and admin, replacement furniture, and bad debts. The deductible ones come off your rent, and what is left is the profit you pay tax on.

Two rules sit on top of that list, and they are where most claims go wrong. Mortgage interest is not one of the deductions if you own the property personally: you get a 20% tax reducer instead, worked out against your tax bill rather than taken off your rent. And a cost that improves the property, rather than putting it back the way it was, is capital. Capital costs do not reduce this year's profit at all.

A cost with a private element is not lost automatically, but you can claim only the business share of it. A trip that combined a property inspection with a family visit is claimable for the inspection leg alone. A cost with no business purpose, such as your own time, is not claimable at any percentage. An overnight stay and reasonable subsistence on a long trip to a distant property can be claimed where the journey itself is genuinely for the letting, but meals near home cannot. Compensation or contractual damages you pay a tenant are allowable on the same wholly-and-exclusively basis, provided the payment arose from running the letting.

The Complete List of Allowable Landlord Expenses

Here is every allowable expense category for UK landlords at a glance. Each is explained in detail, with the grey areas, further down the page.

• Property running costs: gas, electricity, water rates, council tax (when the landlord is liable), buildings and contents insurance, ground rent, service charges
• Repairs and maintenance: plumbing, electrical and roofing repairs, boiler servicing, decorating, garden maintenance, replacing broken fixtures (including small sub-£100 jobs)
• Professional fees: letting agent and management fees, accountancy, legal fees for the letting, surveyor and valuation fees
• Advertising: property portal listings, photography, signboards
• Finance costs: mortgage interest (a 20% tax reducer for individuals under Section 24, a full deduction for companies), arrangement and broker fees, redemption penalties, bank charges
• Travel: inspections, rent collection, meeting contractors, buying materials (55p per mile for the first 10,000 miles, then 25p)
• Office and admin: stationery, business phone calls, computer equipment, accounting software, home-office costs
• Replacement items: furniture, appliances, kitchenware, carpets, curtains, claimed under Replacement of Domestic Items Relief (replacement cost only, not the initial purchase)
• Bad debts and legal: unpaid rent written off, debt collection, possession and eviction costs

Not deductible as a revenue expense: capital improvements, personal use, your own labour, mortgage capital repayments, fines and penalties, and the costs of buying or selling the property. Several of these instead feed your Capital Gains Tax base cost. See the dedicated section below, and for the repair-versus-improvement borderline use our capital vs revenue expenditure decision guide.

Landlord Expenses List: At-a-Glance Table

For a quick, scannable reference, here is a table of common allowable landlord expenses for 2026/27.

Expense Category	Examples of Allowable Costs	Watch For
Property Running Costs	Utilities, council tax (if liable), insurance, ground rent, service charges	Only landlord-borne costs; HMO bills-included is fully deductible
Repairs & Maintenance	Plumbing, electrical, decorating, boiler servicing, like-for-like replacements	Improvements are capital, not revenue
Professional Fees	Letting agent, accountancy, letting-related legal, surveyor fees	Purchase and sale legal fees are capital, not revenue
Finance Costs	Mortgage interest (20% reducer for individuals), arrangement and broker fees	Interest is a Section 24 reducer, not a deduction, for individuals
Travel	Inspections, rent collection (55p per mile to 10,000 miles)	Apportion mixed-use vehicles; keep a mileage log
Office & Home Office	Stationery, business phone, software, apportioned home-office costs	Exclusive-use actual-cost claims can restrict PPR on your home
Replacement Items	Furniture, appliances, carpets, curtains (replacement only)	Net off proceeds of old item; capped at like-for-like
Advertising	Portal listings, photography, "To Let" signs	Tenant-finding only, not pre-purchase marketing
Legal & Bad Debts	Possession costs, debt collection, unpaid rent written off	Write off only after reasonable collection efforts

Source: HMRC property income guidance on allowable expenses, gov.uk. Data to August 2026.

Property Running Costs

These day-to-day costs are deductible to the extent you, the landlord, bear them.

• Gas and electricity (where the landlord pays)
• Water rates and sewerage charges
• Council tax during void periods or where the landlord is liable
• Buildings and contents landlord insurance premiums
• Ground rent paid to the freeholder
• Service charges for the upkeep of common areas in flats and leasehold properties

HMO bills-included rents. If you let a house in multiple occupation on a "bills included" basis and you pay the utility companies directly, you can deduct the full cost of those utilities, even though tenants pay you a fixed inclusive rent. The deductible amount is what you actually pay the supplier, not a notional split.

Repairs, Maintenance and the Repairs-versus-Improvements Line

You can claim the full cost of work that maintains the property in its original condition. This includes plumbing and electrical repairs, roof and gutter work, boiler servicing, decorating, garden maintenance, and replacing broken fixtures such as taps and light fittings.

Grey area: sub-£100 repairs. There is no minimum claim threshold. A £30 call-out fee or a £45 replacement part is fully deductible. Many landlords leave these off because they feel trivial, but across a portfolio and a full tax year they add up to real money. Keep the receipt for every one.

The repairs-versus-improvements line. This is the most scrutinised distinction in landlord tax. A repair restores; an improvement betters. Replacing a worn worktop with a similar one is a repair. Building an extension or fitting a brand-new kitchen is an improvement. HMRC sets out the test in detail at PIM2030 of the Property Income Manual, noting that using modern equivalent materials (for example, double-glazing replacing single-glazing where it is now the standard) is usually still a repair, not an improvement. Improvements are capital: they are not deductible against rental income, but they form part of your Capital Gains Tax base cost when you sell. For the full treatment, see our guide to landlord capital allowances and the capital-versus-revenue boundary.

Professional Fees, Advertising and Management

Costs of running the letting through professionals are deductible:

• Letting agent fees for tenant-finding, rent collection and full management, including the VAT charged on them
• Accountancy fees for preparing your rental accounts and tax return
• Legal fees for tenancy agreements, lease renewals and evictions
• Surveyor and valuation fees incurred for the letting (not for a purchase)

If you self-manage, you cannot deduct a notional fee for your own time. HMRC does not allow a deduction for the landlord's own labour.

The legal-fee trap. Legal and professional fees for buying or selling the property are not deductible against rental income. They are capital costs that go into your Capital Gains Tax computation instead.

Tenant-finding advertising is fully deductible, including online portal listings (Rightmove, Zoopla), professional photography, and "To Let" signboards. Marketing costs incurred before you owned the property, as part of acquiring it, are not.

Finance Costs and Section 24

Finance costs are treated very differently depending on whether you hold the property personally or through a company.

Individual Landlords: the Section 24 Reducer

Since the rules fully phased in for 2020/21, individual residential landlords cannot deduct mortgage interest from rental profit. Instead, ITTOIA 2005 s.274A and s.274AA give a tax reducer worth 20% of finance costs for 2026/27, applied against your overall income tax bill. The reducer is capped at the lower of:

• 20% of the finance costs for the year
• 20% of the residential property profit before any finance-cost relief
• 20% of your total income above the personal allowance

Any reducer restricted by that cap carries forward to later years. For the full mechanics and worked figures, read our Section 24 mortgage interest restriction guide and our walkthrough of how to claim mortgage interest relief under Section 24.

Looking ahead to April 2027. Finance Act 2026 (Royal Assent 18 March 2026) introduced separate property income tax rates from 6 April 2027, with a property basic rate of 22%. As an enacted consequence, the Section 24 reducer rises from 20% to 22% for 2027/28 onwards, tracking the new basic rate. A basic-rate landlord sees no new wedge from this change, while a higher or additional-rate landlord's relief edges up from 20% to 22% but still sits well below their marginal rate. See our guide to the 2027 property tax rates and Section 24 relief.

Other Finance Costs That Also Run Through the Reducer

Section 24 restricts more than the interest. These related costs are finance costs too, so for individuals they are relieved through the 20% reducer rather than deducted from profit:

• Mortgage arrangement and product fees
• Broker and mortgage-adviser fees
• Valuation fees for a mortgage application
• Early redemption penalties
• Bank charges on the rental property account

Grey area: arrangement-fee timing. Mortgage arrangement fees are relieved in the year you pay them, even if the mortgage runs for several years. You do not have to spread them over the term. These are still finance costs, so for individuals they fall within the Section 24 reducer. For the detail, see our note on whether mortgage arrangement fees are deductible.

Company Landlords

A company holding buy-to-let property is outside Section 24. It deducts mortgage interest and other finance costs in full as a business expense before corporation tax. This different treatment is one of the main reasons portfolio landlords model a corporate structure, alongside the wider planning points covered in our buy-to-let limited company guide.

Travel and Motor Expenses

You can claim travel for genuine property-business journeys, such as inspections, repairs, rent collection, and meeting tenants or contractors. You choose one of two methods per vehicle:

• Mileage: HMRC approved rates of 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the year, then 25p per mile
• Actual costs: fuel, insurance, servicing and repairs, where the vehicle is used wholly for the business

Public transport for business journeys (train, bus, taxi) is also deductible.

Grey area: mixed-use vehicles. Most landlords use the family car for both private and property trips. You must apportion costs to the business journeys only and keep a contemporaneous mileage log showing date, destination and purpose. Without a log, HMRC can disallow the whole claim. Note too that travel from home to a fixed regular base is generally treated as ordinary commuting and is not allowable.

Office, Admin and Home-Office Costs

General admin costs of the business are deductible: stationery and postage, business phone calls, computer equipment, and property management or accounting software subscriptions.

The Home-Office Deduction

If you run your lettings from home, you deduct a fair share of your household running costs. Note one trap most guides get wrong: a property business cannot use the simplified flat-rate amounts (the £10, £18 and £26 monthly bands). Those sit in ITTOIA 2005 s.94H, a trading-income relief, and the property cash-basis rules in s.272ZA apply only the vehicle flat rates, not the use-of-home one. HMRC's landlord guidance (PIM2100) is to apportion actual costs.

How to apportion. Take a fair share of household running costs (council tax, utilities, insurance, and for renters a share of rent) by reference to the rooms used and the time spent on the lettings business. Keep a note of the basis you used so you can show how you reached the figure.

The home-office CGT trap. If the apportionment characterises a room as used exclusively for the property business, that same fact restricts your Private Residence Relief when you sell your own home, under TCGA 1992 s.224(1). You would lose the relief on the business-use proportion of the gain, which on a typical home can run to tens of thousands of pounds, far outweighing the income-tax deduction. The fix is straightforward: ensure the room also has a genuine non-business use (a spare desk in a guest bedroom, for example), so the use is mixed rather than exclusive. For the full decision tree, including the separate route available to company directors under ITEPA 2003 s.316A, see our dedicated guide on claiming the home-office deduction as a landlord.

Replacement of Domestic Items Relief

The 10% Wear and Tear Allowance was abolished from 6 April 2016. There is no wear and tear allowance for 2026/27, and you can no longer claim a flat percentage of rent. It was replaced by Replacement of Domestic Items Relief under ITTOIA 2005 s.311A, which lets you deduct the actual cost of replacing (not initially buying) domestic items in a let dwelling, such as:

• Furniture (beds, sofas, tables, wardrobes)
• Furnishings (curtains, carpets, blinds)
• Household appliances (fridges, washing machines, cookers)
• Kitchenware and crockery

How the netting works. You deduct the cost of the new item, less any proceeds you receive for the old one. If you upgrade rather than replace like-for-like, your deduction is capped at the cost of a like-for-like replacement; the extra cost of the upgrade is not allowable. For example, replacing a worn-out washing machine with a similar model is fully claimable net of any scrap or resale value, but trading up to a premium model only gives relief up to the cost of an equivalent standard machine.

What does not count. The relief covers loose domestic items, not fixtures. Boilers, fitted kitchens, fitted bathroom suites and similar are part of the fabric of the building, so replacing them is judged on the repairs-versus-improvements test, not RDI. For the full mechanics and edge cases, see our Replacement of Domestic Items Relief guide.

Insurance Claims and Other Grey Areas

Several common costs and receipts cause genuine confusion. The position on each:

• Insurance-claim payouts are tax-free. A payout reimburses a loss; it is not rental income. You deduct the premium, and the claim money is not taxed, unless the payout exceeds the actual loss, where the excess can be taxable. If you also deduct the repair the payout funded, do not claim the same cost twice.
• Insurance excess you pay on a claim is itself a deductible cost where it relates to a deductible repair.
• Cleaning between tenancies and end-of-tenancy redecoration are deductible.
• Safety certificates: gas safety, electrical (EICR), and EPC costs for the let are deductible.
• Deposit protection scheme fees are deductible.
• Landlord association membership (for example the NRLA) and relevant subscription or redress-scheme fees are deductible where they relate to running the lettings.

Bad Debts and Legal Costs

Costs of dealing with problem tenancies are allowable:

• Unpaid rent written off as a bad debt
• Debt collection agency fees
• Court and possession proceeding costs
• Bailiff and enforcement costs
• Legal fees for evictions

You can only claim relief for written-off rent once the debt is genuinely irrecoverable and you have made reasonable efforts to collect it. A tenant who is simply late is not yet a bad debt.

What Is NOT Deductible Against Rental Income

Some costs are never allowable as a revenue expense, although several feed your Capital Gains Tax base cost instead:

• Capital improvements: extensions, new kitchens and bathrooms, loft conversions (capital, into CGT base cost)
• Your own labour: you cannot pay yourself for managing or repairing the property
• Personal use: costs for any period you occupy the property yourself
• Mortgage capital repayments: only the interest is relevant, and even that is via the Section 24 reducer for individuals
• Fines and penalties: including HMRC late-filing penalties
• Purchase costs: Stamp Duty Land Tax (or LBTT in Scotland, LTT in Wales) and legal fees on the purchase (capital, into CGT base cost)
• Sale costs: estate agent and legal fees on a sale (capital, into CGT base cost)

Residential property gains are taxed at 18% within the basic-rate band and 24% above it, after the annual exempt amount of £3,000 for 2026/27. Costing your improvements and acquisition correctly now is what protects that base cost later.

Can you deduct mortgage interest from rental income?

No, not since 6 April 2020. If you hold a residential let in your own name, mortgage interest comes off your tax bill as a 20% reducer for 2026/27, and never off your rental profit. A company holding the same property still deducts the interest in full. The rules were changed so that every landlord gets relief at the same basic rate, whatever band they pay tax in.

The restriction arrived in stages. From 6 April 2017 you could still deduct 75% of your finance costs, then 50% for 2018/19 and 25% for 2019/20, with the rest of the relief given as the basic-rate reducer each year. From 2020/21 the deductible share reached zero and the reducer carried all of it.

The 20% is not 20% off your rent. Say you pay £7,200 of mortgage interest in 2026/27. None of that reduces your rental profit. Instead £1,440, which is 20% of £7,200, comes off the income tax you owe, subject to the three-part cap described earlier. For a higher-rate taxpayer the difference is real money: the old rules gave relief at 40%, worth £2,880 on the same interest, so that loan now costs £1,440 more in tax every year. If you pay basic rate, 20% relief is what you always had.

What else counts as a finance cost. Capital repayments are never claimable, at any tax rate. Only the interest element counts, and only through the reducer. Arrangement fees, product-switch fees, remortgage fees, broker fees and early redemption charges are finance costs too, so they run through the same reducer rather than reducing your profit. Interest on a loan taken out for the property business, rather than secured on the property itself, follows the same treatment.

Which repairs count as allowable expenses, and which are improvements?

A repair puts the property back the way it was and comes off this year's rent in full. An improvement makes it better than it was, so it waits and joins your Capital Gains Tax base cost. The test is the standard of the property, not the size of the bill: a £9,000 re-roof can be a repair, while a £900 fitted wardrobe that was never there before is capital.

Work	Normal treatment	Why
Repointing brickwork	Repair, deduct in full	Restores the wall and adds nothing new
Roof repair after a leak	Repair, deduct in full	Returns the roof to its former state
Single glazing replaced with double glazing	Repair, deduct in full	Modern equivalent of what was there
Re-tiling or re-laying flooring like for like	Repair, deduct in full	Fitted flooring is part of the property
Replacing carpets, curtains or a washing machine	Replacement of Domestic Items Relief	Loose domestic items, net off what the old one fetched
Worn bathroom suite replaced with a similar one	Repair, deduct in full	Same standard, nothing upgraded
Boiler replaced with a modern equivalent	Repair, deduct in full	Like-for-like replacement of a fixture
Adding a second bathroom or an en suite	Capital, into your CGT base cost	New to the property
First-time central heating or air conditioning	Capital, into your CGT base cost	An installation, not a replacement
Loft conversion or extension	Capital, into your CGT base cost	Makes the property bigger than it was

Source: HMRC property income guidance on repairs and improvements, gov.uk. Data to August 2026.

Jobs that are part repair and part upgrade. Replacing defective cladding with a compliant equivalent is normally a repair, because it restores the building rather than bettering it. Where the same job also lifts the block above its former standard, the upgrading part is capital and the rest stays revenue. Split these on the invoice detail. A contractor's single-line invoice is what turns a defensible split into a disallowed claim.

Major works on a leasehold flat. Ground rent and the day-to-day part of your service charge are deductible in the normal way. Where the service charge includes a contribution to major works, the repair element is revenue and any part funding an improvement to the block is capital. Ask the managing agent for the breakdown, because the demand on its own rarely shows it.

Vans, cars and tools. A van bought for the property business is not a running cost. Under the cash basis you deduct the payment in the year you make it; on traditional accounting you claim capital allowances instead. Cars are excluded from that cash-basis deduction, so a car is claimed either through mileage at 55p or, on traditional accounting, through capital allowances plus apportioned running costs. You cannot use both methods on the same vehicle, and lease payments on a car you also drive privately are apportioned to the business share.

Which tax year do you claim a landlord expense in?

The tax year you pay it, in almost every case. The cash basis has been the default for individual landlords since 2017/18, and it applies unless your rental receipts pass £150,000 or you opt out and use traditional accounting. On the cash basis the payment date decides, and nothing else does.

That settles the question landlords ask most often after a late invoice. A roof leak in March 2026, invoiced and paid in May 2026, is a 2026/27 expense on the cash basis, even though the damage happened in 2025/26. On traditional accounting the same repair belongs to 2025/26, because that is when the work was done. Companies, limited liability partnerships and trustees cannot use the cash basis at all.

Spending before your first tenant has its own rule. Costs incurred in the seven years before the letting starts, which would have been allowable once it was running, are treated as incurred on the first day of the business. See our guide to pre-letting expenses you can claim before your first tenant.

Is rent tax deductible?

Only when you pay it to run the letting. Rent on your own home is not deductible against anything, because the UK gives tenants no relief for it. Rent you pay to a superior landlord on a property you then sublet is an ordinary running cost of your property business, and it comes off your profit in full.

Ground rent works the same way. If you let a leasehold flat and pay £300 a year of ground rent, that £300 is allowable, worth £60 off a basic-rate tax bill and £120 off a higher-rate one. Service charges follow it, and the two are among the most commonly missed claims on leasehold lets.

The rent your tenant pays you is the other side of the coin. It is income rather than a deduction, and it is taxable even when it does not reach your own account. Rent collected and held by a letting agent still counts as yours, so you declare the gross rent and claim the agent's fee as an expense instead of netting it off.

Should you claim expenses or the £1,000 property income allowance?

Claim the £1,000 property income allowance only when your actual allowable expenses come to less than £1,000. It is one or the other in a tax year, never both, and the £1,000 is per person rather than per property, so joint owners each have their own against their share.

If your total property receipts for the year are £1,000 or less, full relief applies without you doing anything. There is nothing to report and no expenses to add up. Above that, you elect to deduct £1,000 in place of your actual costs. On £4,000 of rent with £600 of expenses, the allowance leaves £3,000 of taxable profit instead of £3,400, which is £400 less profit and £80 less tax at the basic rate.

The trap if you have a mortgage. You cannot use the property income allowance in a year you claim the Section 24 finance-cost reducer. The two are mutually exclusive, so a mortgaged let is almost always better off claiming actual expenses. The narrow exception is a year in which the reducer works out at nil, which leaves the election open.

Beyond this allowance, landlords have no flat-rate percentage to fall back on. The 10% wear and tear allowance ended in 2016 and nothing replaced it as a share of rent. Our guide to the £1,000 property income allowance runs the full comparison, including joint owners and the situations where the allowance is blocked.

Worked Example: Claiming Your Expenses Correctly

Suppose you let a buy-to-let flat earning £12,000 in rent for 2026/27, and your costs for the year are:

• Repairs (boiler repair): £850
• Insurance: £300
• Letting agent fees: £1,200
• Mortgage interest: £4,000 (not a deduction, but the Section 24 reducer applies)
• Travel (mileage to the property): £200
• Home office (apportioned share of household running costs): £120
• Replacement washing machine: £350, old one sold for £50, so a net £300

Deductible expenses total £850 + £300 + £1,200 + £200 + £120 + £300 = £2,970.

Property profit before finance relief: £12,000 − £2,970 = £9,030.

Income tax at the 20% basic rate on £9,030 (assuming this sits within the basic-rate band): £9,030 × 20% = £1,806.

Section 24 reducer: £4,000 × 20% = £800 (within the three-part cap here).

Tax due on the rental profit: £1,806 − £800 = £1,006.

If this landlord had forgotten the travel, home-office and replacement-item claims (£620 of expenses), profit would have been £9,650, tax £1,930, and after the same £800 reducer, £1,130. That is £124 more tax from three overlooked categories on a single small property. Scale that across a portfolio and a missed-deductions habit becomes the most expensive mistake a landlord makes.

Record-Keeping, Making Tax Digital and Forward Planning

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is now live. The phased thresholds are qualifying income over £50,000 from 6 April 2026, over £30,000 from 6 April 2027, and over £20,000 from 6 April 2028. Joint owners test the threshold against their own share of income, and limited companies are outside MTD for Income Tax. Within MTD you must keep digital records and file quarterly updates.

Essential Records to Keep

• All rental income receipts and statements
• Expense receipts and invoices showing the property address
• Bank and credit card statements for the rental account
• Mileage logs for any travel claim
• Tenancy agreements and rent records

Keep everything for at least five years after the 31 January deadline for the relevant year, in digital form. Cloud-based landlord accounting software that connects to HMRC makes the quarterly cadence manageable. For the deadlines and what changes in practice, see our Making Tax Digital for landlords deadline guide.

With the separate property income tax rates and the higher 22% reducer arriving from April 2027, the value of capturing every legitimate deduction, and of getting the repairs-versus-improvements and home-office calls right, only increases. Tax rules for landlords are detailed and change often, so if you are unsure about any specific expense, it is worth checking the position before you file rather than after.

Related Reading

• Rental Income Tax UK: Complete Guide for Landlords
• Section 24 Mortgage Interest Restriction Explained
• Replacement of Domestic Items Relief: Full Guide
• Landlord Capital Allowances and Capital-versus-Revenue
• Pre-Letting Expenses: What You Can Claim Before Your First Tenant