Landlord Tax Deadlines 2026/27: Income Tax, MTD, CGT, SDLT, ATED and Payment Dates

2026/27 landlord tax calendar: the key dates

The 2026/27 tax year is 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. The final online filing and balancing payment date for that year is 31 January 2028, but many landlord deadlines fall much earlier.

Do not treat 31 January as your only tax date. In 2026/27, a landlord in MTD could have quarterly update deadlines, a 31 July payment on account, and a 60-day CGT deadline from a sale all within the same year.

Income Tax and Self Assessment deadlines for landlords

For 2025/26, filed during the 2026/27 calendar, a landlord who needs to complete a tax return for the first time must tell HMRC by 5 October 2026. HMRC must receive a 2025/26 paper return by 11:59pm on 31 October 2026 and an online return by 11:59pm on 31 January 2027.

The 2025/26 tax payment is also due by 11:59pm on 31 January 2027. If you want HMRC to collect a Self Assessment bill through your PAYE tax code, you must owe less than £3,000, already pay tax through PAYE, and submit the 2025/26 online return by 30 December 2026.

For the 2026/27 landlord year itself, the online Self Assessment or MTD Income Tax return and balancing payment are due by 31 January 2028. The 2026/27 paper Self Assessment deadline is 31 October 2027 for landlords who are not required to use MTD.

HMRC says a late Self Assessment return triggers a £100 penalty even if no tax is due, with further penalties after more than 3, 6 and 12 months. If you are unsure whether your property income needs declaring at all, start with do I need to declare rental income?.

• Register by 5 October if you are newly within Self Assessment for the previous tax year.
• File by 31 October if using paper and eligible to do so.
• File and pay by 31 January if filing online or through MTD software.
• Submit by 30 December if you want a qualifying bill collected through PAYE.

MTD Income Tax deadlines for 2026/27 landlords

MTD for Income Tax applies in phases. Landlords and sole traders registered for Self Assessment with qualifying income over £50,000 for 2024/25 must use MTD from 6 April 2026. The threshold falls to over £30,000 for 2025/26 income from 6 April 2027, and over £20,000 for 2026/27 income from 6 April 2028.

For the first MTD landlord cohort, the 2026/27 quarterly update deadlines are 7 August 2026, 7 November 2026, 7 February 2027 and 7 May 2027. The final 2026/27 tax return is then submitted from MTD-compatible software by 31 January 2028.

Quarterly updates are summaries of income and expenses, not final tax returns. They do not change the main tax payment dates. For a deeper quarterly-only view, use our MTD quarterly deadline calendar 2026/27.

Payments on account and landlord cashflow dates

Payments on account are normally due by midnight on 31 January and 31 July. Each payment is usually half the previous year’s Self Assessment tax bill.

They are not due if the previous year’s Self Assessment tax was less than £1,000, or if more than 80% of the tax was already collected at source, for example through PAYE.

Around the 2026/27 year, the key dates are 31 July 2026 for the second 2025/26 payment on account, 31 January 2027 for the 2025/26 balancing payment plus the first 2026/27 payment on account, 31 July 2027 for the second 2026/27 payment on account, and 31 January 2028 for any 2026/27 balancing payment. If cashflow is your main concern, compare this with our payments on account deadlines for landlords guide.

• 31 January can include a balancing payment and a first payment on account.
• 31 July is usually the second payment on account.
• Payments on account are based on last year, so a rising rental profit can still leave a balancing payment.
• If profits fall, you may be able to reduce payments on account, but reducing them too far can create interest.

Payment lead times: when to actually press pay

A tax deadline is the date HMRC must receive the money, not the date you start the payment. That matters if you are using Bacs or Direct Debit close to 31 January or 31 July.

For Self Assessment, Bacs and an existing Direct Debit can take 3 working days. A new Direct Debit can take 5 working days. Faster Payments usually reach HMRC the same or next day, including weekends and bank holidays, but you should still check your bank limits and use the correct reference.

Where a payment deadline falls on a weekend or bank holiday, HMRC says payment should reach it by the last working day before unless you are paying by Faster Payments or debit or credit card. For Self Assessment, the payment reference is normally your 10-digit UTR followed by K.

Property transaction deadlines: CGT, SDLT and ATED

Landlord tax deadlines are not limited to rental income. A sale, purchase or company-owned dwelling can create its own clock, often well before your next Self Assessment filing date.

For UK residential property, Capital Gains Tax must usually be reported and paid within 60 days of completion where CGT is due. If you are already in Self Assessment, you may also need to include the sale on your tax return. Our property sale CGT deadline calendar covers the sale timeline in more detail.

For SDLT in England and Northern Ireland, the land transaction return and SDLT payment are normally due within 14 days beginning the day after the effective date of the transaction. For most purchases, the effective date is completion, but your conveyancer should confirm the correct date.

ATED is mainly relevant to companies, partnerships with corporate members and collective investment schemes holding UK residential property worth more than £500,000. If a property is within ATED on 1 April, the return is normally due by 30 April; if it comes within scope after 1 April, the return is normally due within 30 days; for a newly built dwelling, the deadline can be within 90 days of the earliest relevant trigger. ATED payment is normally due on the same date as the return.

Step by step

1. 1

   Check whether MTD applies

   Use the free MTD threshold checker above. For 2026/27, the first mandatory landlord cohort is based on qualifying income over £50,000 for 2024/25.

2. 2

   Put the annual filing dates in your diary

   Add 31 October 2027 for an eligible 2026/27 paper return and 31 January 2028 for the 2026/27 online or MTD return and balancing payment.

3. 3

   Add payments on account

   If you are within payments on account, add 31 July 2026, 31 January 2027, 31 July 2027 and 31 January 2028 to your cashflow plan.

4. 4

   Add MTD quarterly updates if required

   For a landlord in MTD from 6 April 2026, add 7 August 2026, 7 November 2026, 7 February 2027 and 7 May 2027.

5. 5

   Create event-based reminders

   For property sales, track the 60-day CGT deadline from completion. For purchases in England and Northern Ireland, track the 14-day SDLT deadline from the effective date.

6. 6

   Pay early enough for HMRC to receive it

   Allow 3 working days for Bacs or an existing Direct Debit and 5 working days for a new Direct Debit, unless using a faster method that reaches HMRC in time.

A worked example

Example: Priya is a personal landlord. Her 2025/26 Self Assessment tax bill after PAYE deductions is £4,800, so she is within payments on account for 2026/27.

This shows why 31 January 2027 can be expensive: Priya may need to pay the 2025/26 balancing amount and the first 2026/27 payment on account on the same date.

Frequently asked questions