HMRC Approved MTD Software for Landlords 2026: Full List

HMRC approved vs HMRC recognised MTD software — what is the difference?

The phrase “HMRC approved MTD software” is one of the most searched terms in this space, and it is technically incorrect. HMRC does not endorse or approve any commercial software product. What HMRC does is grant recognition— sometimes called compatibility — to software that has successfully connected to HMRC's Making Tax Digital API, passed testing, and meets HMRC's technical specification for submitting quarterly updates and End of Period Statements.

This distinction matters for landlords evaluating tools. If a software vendor claims to be “HMRC approved” in marketing material, that is loose language — not an official designation. The only meaningful question is whether the software appears on HMRC's official compatible software list on gov.uk. If it is on that list, it can submit quarterly updates directly to HMRC on your behalf. If it is not, it cannot — regardless of what the vendor says.

The gov.uk list is updated by HMRC as new products pass their testing process. It is filtered by the type of MTD — there are separate lists for MTD for VAT and MTD for Income Tax. As a landlord, you need software on the MTD for Income Tax list specifically, since that is the regime you are joining from 6 April 2026 if your qualifying income exceeds £50,000.

For context on what qualifies as “qualifying income” and whether MTD applies to you at all, read our complete MTD guide for landlords.

How to find HMRC-recognised MTD software

The steps are straightforward. Go to gov.uk/guidance/find-software-thats-compatible-with-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax. You will see a filterable directory of products. Filter by:

1. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax — confirm you are looking at the ITSA list, not VAT.
2. Property income — some tools are only listed for self-employment income, not property income. A landlord needs a product that explicitly covers property income.
3. Submission type — look for products that handle both quarterly updates and End of Period Statements (EOPS), not just one or the other.

Once you have a shortlist from the gov.uk directory, compare the products on landlord-specific criteria — covered in the section below. Not all HMRC-recognised software understands SA105 property categories, Section 24 mortgage interest restriction treatment, or furnished holiday let rules. Recognition confirms a technical integration; it says nothing about how well the software handles the specifics of property income.

Not certain whether you need MTD software at all? Our check if you need MTD software tool takes three minutes and gives you a clear yes/no based on your income figures.

What landlord-specific features should you look for?

HMRC recognition is the minimum bar. Once you have confirmed a product is on the official list, the next question is whether it actually fits how landlords manage income and expenses. Here are the features that matter most.

SA105 category awareness

Your annual property return uses the SA105 supplementary pages. These have specific categories: rent income, premiums for the grant of a lease, loan interest and other financial costs, legal and professional fees, cost of services, other allowable expenses, and more. A good landlord MTD tool pre-maps your bank transactions to these categories rather than leaving you to create your own chart of accounts from scratch.

General accounting tools — FreeAgent, QuickBooks — require you to create a custom mapping from their generic account codes to SA105 categories. This is achievable but adds setup time and leaves room for error if categories drift.

Bank feed and transaction import

A live bank feed — or at minimum a clean CSV import — is essential for quarterly compliance without heavy manual data entry. Look for Open Banking connections to your lenders. If the software cannot pull transactions automatically from a landlord bank account or mortgage account, you will be typing figures in manually every quarter.

Multiple property handling

MTD for Income Tax treats all your UK property as a single income source for submission purposes — you do not submit separately per property. However, your software should still allow you to track income and expenses at the property level so you know which properties are profitable and which are not. A tool that only records totals is technically compliant but practically limiting.

Section 24 mortgage interest handling

Since April 2020, mortgage interest is no longer a straightforward deductible expense for residential landlords. Instead, you receive a basic rate tax credit (20%) on finance costs. This is a SA105-level calculation. Your MTD software needs to separate “finance costs” from other expenses and record them in the correct SA105 field — not simply deduct them from rental income as it would for a business expense.

End of Period Statement and Final Declaration support

Quarterly updates are only part of the MTD process. At the end of the tax year you must also submit an End of Period Statement (EOPS) — confirming that your quarterly figures are correct — and then a Final Declaration, which replaces your old SA100 Self Assessment return. Not all recognised software covers all three stages. Check explicitly before signing up.

Full comparison: HMRC-recognised MTD software for landlords 2026

The table below covers the seven tools most frequently considered by UK landlords. All prices are indicative and subject to change — check each vendor's website for current pricing. HMRC recognition status was verified against the gov.uk compatible software list in April 2026.

HMRC recognition status correct as of April 2026. Check the official gov.uk list for the most current information.

Tool-by-tool breakdown for landlords

Hammock

Hammock is one of the few platforms built from the ground up for landlords rather than adapted from a general accounting tool. It combines property management features — rent tracking, tenancy records, document storage — with a full MTD for Income Tax submission layer. The bank feed connects directly to most UK current accounts via Open Banking. Expense categories map to SA105 fields. Quarterly updates and End of Period Statements are submitted directly to HMRC, and Hammock appears on the official HMRC recognised software list.

Hammock is well suited to self-managing landlords with two to ten properties who want a single tool for both operational and tax compliance work. Its main limitation is price — it is one of the more expensive options on this list for smaller portfolios.

Landlord Studio

Landlord Studio began as a property management and rent tracking app and added a UK MTD compliance module for the 2026 mandate. It has a mobile-first design and is particularly popular with landlords who want to photograph receipts on the go and categorise them immediately rather than batching monthly. The MTD module handles quarterly updates and is HMRC recognised for property income submissions.

Its entry-level pricing makes it accessible for landlords with smaller portfolios, and the property-level tracking is more granular than most alternatives. The accounting depth is lighter than FreeAgent or QuickBooks, which may be a limitation if your accountant wants to use the same platform for year-end work.

FreeAgent

FreeAgent is a well-established HMRC-recognised accounting platform with broad accountant adoption across the UK. It has supported MTD for VAT for several years and has added MTD for Income Tax capability. Its strength is accounting depth — bank reconciliation, invoicing, expense management — and the large number of accountants already familiar with the platform.

The weakness for landlords is that FreeAgent is not property-specific. SA105 category mapping requires some manual configuration, and the Section 24 mortgage interest restriction is not handled natively. You will need either an accountant to set up the chart of accounts correctly or a solid understanding of SA105 categories yourself. Note that FreeAgent is available free of charge with a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, or Ulster Bank business account.

123 Sheets

123 Sheets is bridging software — it sits between your existing spreadsheet and HMRC's MTD API, translating your records into the format HMRC requires and handling the submission. It is HMRC recognised and is the lowest-cost entry point on this list. If you are already maintaining meticulous spreadsheet records and do not want to change your workflow, 123 Sheets lets you comply with MTD without adopting new bookkeeping habits.

The trade-off is that the bridging approach is the most manual of any option here. You are still responsible for correctly categorising transactions in your spreadsheet — 123 Sheets only handles the submission layer. It is a good fit for tech-comfortable landlords with simple, stable portfolios. It is less suitable for landlords who frequently add properties or have complex mixed-income situations.

APARI

APARI was designed specifically for the self-employed and landlord market in the UK. It offers a free tier for straightforward income situations, which is unusual in this market. The paid tiers add bank feeds, portfolio tracking, and full EOPS and Final Declaration support. It is HMRC recognised for MTD for Income Tax including property income.

APARI is a strong choice for landlords who also have self-employment income — a common combination — since the platform handles both income types within a single MTD return. The interface is simple, which some users find limiting but most find refreshing compared to feature-heavy accounting platforms.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is one of the most widely used accounting platforms in the UK small-business market, and it is HMRC recognised for MTD for Income Tax. Its bank feeds, expense rules, and accountant collaboration tools are mature and reliable. Quarterly updates are submitted directly to HMRC.

As with FreeAgent, the limitation for landlords is specificity. QuickBooks is built for businesses, not for property portfolios. SA105 categories are not pre-configured, Section 24 treatment requires manual setup, and the platform carries more overhead than most landlords need. If your accountant already uses QuickBooks and is prepared to handle the MTD configuration, it works well. If you are self-managing your accounts, a landlord-specific tool will require less setup work.

LandlordTaxAi — HMRC sandbox verified

LandlordTaxAi is purpose-built for UK landlords and uses AI categorisation trained on SA105 property income rules. When you import bank transactions — via CSV or Open Banking feed — the AI maps each transaction to the correct SA105 category (rent income, loan interest, repairs, letting agent fees, and so on) without manual intervention. The categorisation accuracy on common landlord transactions is notably higher than general-purpose accounting tools.

Where to be transparent: LandlordTaxAi currently has HMRC sandbox verified. It is not on the official gov.uk MTD compatible software list as of April 2026. This means it cannot yet be used as the sole tool for direct quarterly MTD submissions to HMRC. If you are mandated from 6 April 2026 and need to submit immediately, you will need a currently recognised tool for submissions until LandlordTaxAi's recognition is granted.

LandlordTaxAi's value proposition is the AI categorisation and landlord-specific SA105 logic, which saves significant time for landlords building quarterly records. As recognition progresses, the platform will support direct HMRC submission. Pricing from £19/month.

For a broader market view, see our comparison article on the best MTD software for landlords 2026, which covers additional tools and ranking criteria.

How to switch MTD software mid-year

Choosing the wrong software is not a permanent mistake. You can switch between HMRC-recognised tools at any point in the tax year. HMRC stores your quarterly submission records centrally — your new software does not need to re-submit earlier quarters.

The process when switching is:

1. Export your records from your current software. Most tools allow CSV or spreadsheet export of your transaction history. Download at minimum the current tax year's data.
2. Sign up to your new software.Create an account and, where supported, import your exported CSV to carry over the current year's categorised transactions.
3. Reauthorise HMRC connection.Your new software will prompt you to authorise it via HMRC's Government Gateway. This grants the new tool permission to submit on your behalf. You can only have one active authorised software at a time per income source — HMRC will deactivate your previous software's connection when you authorise the new one.
4. Check for any pending submissions.If you are mid-quarter, confirm that your previous quarters have been submitted and accepted before deauthorising your old software. HMRC's Business Tax Account shows submitted updates.
5. Submit the next quarter from your new software. The switch is transparent to HMRC. The next quarterly update is simply submitted from the new tool in the same way as any other.

The main practical risk when switching is data continuity. If your previous software categorised transactions differently, your running income and expense totals may not match between tools. Reconcile the figures from your bank statements against both systems before the next quarterly submission.

Which software should landlords choose in 2026?

There is no single right answer — it depends on your portfolio size, how hands-on you are with your accounts, and whether you have an accountant who has a software preference. That said, a few patterns are clear.

If you self-manage a small portfolio (one to five properties) and want minimal setup, APARI or Landlord Studio offer the quickest route to MTD compliance with landlord-relevant features. Both are HMRC recognised and handle the quarterly submission end to end.

If you want full property management alongside MTD, Hammock is the most integrated option — tenancy management, rent tracking, and MTD compliance in a single product. It costs more but replaces multiple tools.

If your accountant is already on QuickBooks or FreeAgent, staying in their ecosystem is often the path of least friction. The SA105 configuration work falls on them, and you benefit from their existing familiarity with the platform.

If you have a large portfolio and want the best AI categorisation for SA105 accuracy, watch LandlordTaxAi. The AI categorisation on landlord transactions is genuinely strong, and the SA105-aware logic reduces the manual review burden significantly. The constraint is Sandbox-verified — direct submissions require a currently recognised tool until recognition is granted.

If you already use spreadsheets and are resistant to change, 123 Sheets lets you continue your existing bookkeeping workflow while meeting the MTD submission requirement. It is the lowest-cost option that is HMRC recognised.

For a detailed side-by-side scoring of all the options above across 10 criteria, see our full best MTD software for landlords 2026 comparison.

Frequently asked questions