Landlord accountant for UK rental income
Whether you own one flat or a portfolio split across your own name and a company, a free consultation shows you what Section 24 and quarterly reporting are costing you, and quotes a fixed annual fee in writing.
The service
What a landlord accountant covers
Rental income is taxed under rules that have moved almost every year since 2015, and most of the money is won or lost before the return is filed. The mortgage interest you pay is no longer a deduction, the refurbishment you treated as a repair may not be one, and the quarterly filing regime lands on a gross income threshold rather than profit. Every item below is part of the standard service, not an extra.
For the mechanics behind the finance cost restriction, see our guide to Section 24 and the longer write-up on finance costs and Section 24, and the Section 24 calculator if you want a figure before you speak to anyone. Broader reading sits on our landlord tax guide.
Rental accounts and Self Assessment
Property-by-property income and expense schedules, the property pages of your tax return, and the finance cost restriction applied correctly rather than deducted as if it were still 2016.
Section 24 planning
The basic rate reducer is 20% of finance costs now and rises to 22% from April 2027, when property income also moves to its own rates of 22%, 42% and 47%, so higher-rate landlords pay more overall rather than less. Where that pushes you into a higher band, we model the alternatives before you commit to any of them.
Making Tax Digital
Quarterly updates start from April 2026 if your combined self-employment and property income is over £50,000, from April 2027 over £30,000, and from April 2028 over £20,000. We check which year catches you, get the software feeding cleanly, and file the quarterly updates.
Capital allowances and repairs
Splitting capital from revenue on refurbishments, claiming plant and machinery where it genuinely qualifies, and using the writing down allowance at 14% and the 40% first year allowance where they apply. Residential lets are restricted, so the answer is often the repairs deduction, not an allowance.
Company accounts and corporation tax
Statutory accounts, corporation tax returns, director loan accounts and profit extraction for property companies, including how salary and dividends interact now dividend rates are 10.75%, 35.75% and 39.35%.
Disposals and inheritance planning
Capital gains calculations and the 60 day reporting deadline on residential disposals, plus how a portfolio sits inside an estate while the inheritance tax thresholds stay frozen to 5 April 2031.
Our clients
Who we work with
Buy to let
Buy to let landlords
On a geared buy to let you can hand over more tax than you kept in rent. The mortgage interest leaves your account, the tax return adds it straight back on, and you are taxed on a profit you never saw. The credit comes back at 20%; if you pay 40% on that slice, half the relief never arrives. April 2027 changes nothing, because the credit and the rates rise together.
The inflated profit is also the figure every threshold test reads, so it can push you past the higher rate band, the child benefit charge or the personal allowance taper while your bank balance sits exactly where it was.
Beyond the return, we check whether your income is taxed at a rate you could legitimately avoid by holding the property differently, document the ownership split between spouses before the income arises rather than after, and keep repairs apart from improvements, where the wrong call either loses a deduction now or inflates a gain later. Where a company looks attractive, the arithmetic has to include the exit: transferring property is a disposal for capital gains tax and a purchase for stamp duty on the same day. Our buy to let limited company guide covers the structure, and the incorporation analysis puts numbers against your own portfolio.
£50,000 of rent, £8,000 of running costs, £18,000 of mortgage interest.
£18,000 of interest you paid, added back
£3,600
A year, on identical cash flows. Taxed at 40% on that slice, relieved at 20%. From April 2027 the rates become 42% and 22%, so the wedge is unchanged.
Note: Example figures displayed
Want to know what Section 24 is costing you?
Book a consultationPortfolios
Rental portfolios and multiple properties
Past a handful of properties the hard problem stops being the tax return and becomes the record. UK residential lets pool into a single property business, so profits and losses net off before tax. Helpful for the bill, quietly dangerous for the portfolio: one figure goes on the return, and a property that lost money all year leaves no mark on it.
Without property level figures nothing tells you which properties are earning and which are being funded by the others, so the answer arrives years late, usually when you sell. Furnished holiday lets no longer sit in their own regime, and overseas property is a separate business again, which matters for losses and for quarterly reporting.
We produce property by property profit and loss alongside the tax figures, track refinancing and the interest that follows the money rather than the security, and flag the year a disposal should happen rather than the year it happened to. It is also what makes quarterly filing survivable: four submissions against a live ledger beats four against a shoebox of receipts. The portfolio profitability calculator gives you a per property view in a few minutes.
Useful background: capital versus revenue expenditure, jointly owned property and portfolio landlord mortgages.
Profit or loss per property for the year.
£18,200
The single figure the return declares. It nets the five together, so the property losing £4,800 a year never appears, and nothing tells you to look.
Note: Example figures displayed
Investors
Property investors
Investing is a different job from letting. If you are buying to add value and sell, refurbishing and refinancing, or mixing residential with commercial, the first question is whether HMRC would treat your activity as trading rather than investment. That single distinction changes the rate, the reliefs and whether the property is stock or a capital asset. Buying with the intention to sell at a profit looks like a trade regardless of what you call it.
As an accountant for property investors, four things carry most of the risk. Stamp duty analysis on acquisition is where the largest single number usually sits, including the mixed use and multiple dwellings positions, which are far easier to get right at the outset than to reclaim afterwards. See our walkthrough on calculating capital gains tax on a sale and, for anything strategic, our property tax advice service.
Trading or investment
The distinction that sets the rate, the reliefs, and whether a property is stock or a capital asset.
Structure and joint ventures
Multiple vehicles, profit shares and group companies where separate projects need ring fencing.
Allowances and stamp duty
Commercial holdings at the 14% writing down allowance, plus the 40% first year allowance and SDLT on acquisition.
Planned disposals
Timing across tax years against the annual exempt amount and the 60 day residential deadline.
Agents
Letting agents and managing agents
An agency has two sets of books: its own, and other people's money. Client money handling carries reconciliation and reporting obligations that do not apply to an ordinary trading company, and nearly everything an agent gets wrong sits on one side of that line or the other.
Accounting for property management covers the client account alongside the agency accounts, commission and management fees recognised in the period they are earned rather than when the rent clears, VAT on fees including where a fee is disbursed on behalf of a landlord, payroll for negotiators and property managers including commission and the employer National Insurance position at 15% above the £5,000 secondary threshold, and the non-resident landlord scheme where you hold the obligation to deduct and report on overseas landlords you act for.
Quarterly reporting also raises a question agents get asked constantly, which is who files what when a portfolio is managed. Our Making Tax Digital guide sets out the regime, our guide on agent managed portfolios and quarterly filing sets out the split of responsibility, and registering for MTD covers the sign up itself. The MTD checker tells a landlord which year catches them.
Commission and management fees
Recognised when earned, not when the rent clears.
VAT on fees
Including fees disbursed on behalf of a landlord.
Payroll for negotiators
Commission, and employer NI at 15% above £5,000.
Client account reconciliations
A regulatory problem before it is a tax one.
Rent held for landlords
Passes through without ever being agency income.
Non-resident landlord scheme
You deduct and report for overseas landlords.
Recognise your own situation in any of the above?
Book a consultationThe difference
Why a landlord tax accountant rather than a general practice
Most high street firms are perfectly competent and see rental income a few times a year. The problem is volume of change. Since 2015 the sector has absorbed the finance cost restriction phasing in and now increasing, the additional dwellings surcharge, now 5%, the replacement of domestic items relief, the 60 day capital gains reporting window, the end of the furnished holiday lettings regime, and quarterly reporting arriving in two waves. Each one has a trap in it, and the exposure sits with you rather than with whoever filed the return.
We act for landlords only. That is the entire practice, which means the questions you would have to explain elsewhere are the ones we answer daily. If you are weighing up a move, our note on changing landlord accountants covers the process, and choosing a buy to let accountant covers what to ask before you sign anything.
| Area | A general practiceMost high street firms | Most recommendedProperty Tax PartnersA landlord-only practice like us |
|---|---|---|
| How often they see rental cases | A few times a year, alongside every other sector | Every day. It is the entire practice |
| When advice arrives | After completion, when the return is prepared | Before the transaction, while the structure can still be changed |
| How expenditure is classified | Reconstructed later from a bank statement | Classified when the invoice comes in |
| The limited company question | A rule of thumb about higher rate taxpayers | A model with your own figures, including the cost of the exit |
| Section 24, 60 day CGT, MTD | Tracked among the changes for every other sector | Core competence, not a sideline |
| Book a consultation No charge, and no obligation to go further. |
How often they see rental cases
A general practice: A few times a year, alongside every other sectorUs: Every day. It is the entire practiceWhen advice arrives
A general practice: After completion, when the return is preparedUs: Before the transaction, while the structure can still be changedHow expenditure is classified
A general practice: Reconstructed later from a bank statementUs: Classified when the invoice comes inThe limited company question
A general practice: A rule of thumb about higher rate taxpayersUs: A model with your own figures, including the cost of the exitSection 24, 60 day CGT, MTD
A general practice: Tracked among the changes for every other sectorUs: Core competence, not a sideline
No charge, and no obligation to go further.
Getting started
From first call to first filing
- 01
Consultation
A conversation about what you own, how it is held, where the income sits and what you are planning. No charge, and no obligation to go further.
- 02
Scope and fixed quote
You get a written scope with a fixed annual fee covering the compliance work and any one off advisory piece separately. What the work costs depends on the number of properties, how they are held and how tidy the records are, which is why we quote after the consultation rather than before it.
- 03
Handover and setup
We handle the professional clearance letter to your current accountant, HMRC agent authorisation, and getting your bookkeeping into a form that survives quarterly reporting.
- 04
The year, not just the deadline
Quarterly updates where MTD applies, a tax position you can see before January rather than after it, and a real answer when you ring about a property you are about to buy.
Testimonials
What landlords say
Anonymised feedback from landlords and portfolio investors we act for.
“They modelled our Section 24 position properly for the first time and showed us exactly where incorporation did and did not make sense. No hard sell, just the numbers.”
“We were weeks from missing the 60-day capital gains deadline on a sale. They turned the computation around and filed on time. Worth the fee on that alone.”
“Getting ready for Making Tax Digital felt overwhelming. They set up the software, mapped every property, and now the quarterly filing just happens.”
Location
Looking for a landlord accountant near you
Property tax is national. The rules that decide your bill are the same in Manchester as in London, and nothing about a rental return needs a meeting in a room. Searching locally usually surfaces whoever is closest rather than whoever knows the sector, which is a poor trade when the specialism is what saves the money. Scotland and Wales differ on the transaction tax on purchase, and we handle those where they apply.
We act for landlords throughout the UK, and for landlords living abroad who let property here. Records come in electronically, questions get answered on a call booked when it suits you, and you deal with people who have seen your situation before. See our locations for where our clients are.
Across the UK
We act for landlords across the UK, not only in these cities.
Free tools
Put numbers on it before you call
Free, and the figures are yours to take to any adviser.
Free consultation
Speak to an accountant who only works with landlords
Tell us what you own and how it is held. We will look at what it is costing you, then quote a fixed fee in writing.
- Landlord specialists onlyRental income, Section 24 and MTD every day
- Fixed fees, quoted upfrontNo hourly billing, no surprise invoices
- 24-hour responseUsually the same working day
No obligation and no hard sell. If you are better off where you are, we will say so.
Book your free consultation
FAQ