HMRC Let Property Campaign UK 2026 — Landlord Voluntary Disclosure Guide

Who the Let Property Campaign applies to

The Campaign is for individual landlords who have undisclosed UK or overseas rental income:

• Individual landlords letting residential property in the UK who have not declared rental income on their self-assessment tax returns
• Individual landlords letting overseas residential property who have not declared the overseas rental income on their UK tax returns (UK residents are taxable on worldwide income)
• Landlords who started letting after 5 April 2013 and have never registered for self-assessment
• Landlords who were registered but omitted rental income from submitted returns
• The Campaign does NOT apply to companies (limited companies must use the Corporate Disclosure Facility), trusts, or landlords letting commercial property

How to notify HMRC and start the disclosure

The process has three stages: notification, disclosure, and payment:

• Step 1 — Notification: register your intention to make a disclosure via HMRC's Let Property Campaign online notification form. This establishes the date of your notification and starts the 90-day clock for completing the disclosure
• Step 2 — Calculate what you owe: calculate all undisclosed rental income, the income tax due on it, interest on late-paid tax (currently Bank of England base rate + 2.5%), and the penalty. You will need records of all rental income received, allowable expenses, and mortgage interest paid in each year
• Step 3 — Submit the disclosure and pay: complete the disclosure using HMRC's Let Property Campaign online form and make a single payment covering tax, interest, and penalty. Disclosures can cover multiple tax years
• The 90-day window: once you notify HMRC, you have 90 days to complete the disclosure. Use this time to gather records and take professional advice if the disclosure is complex or covers many years
• HMRC guidance states that once you have notified, HMRC will generally not open a compliance investigation into you while the disclosure is in progress — the notification provides a degree of protection

Penalties and how voluntary disclosure reduces them

The Campaign's principal benefit is significantly lower penalties compared to being investigated:

• Unprompted disclosure (you contact HMRC first): penalty range for a careless or deliberate error is 0–30% of the tax owed for careless behaviour, and 0–100% for deliberate and concealed behaviour. In practice, fully cooperative unprompted disclosures for careless omissions often attract penalties at or near the lower end
• Prompted disclosure (HMRC contacts you first): penalty range increases to 15–30% for careless and 35–100% for deliberate behaviour — the floor is higher and the scope for negotiation is reduced
• HMRC investigation (no disclosure): if HMRC opens a formal compliance investigation and the omissions are established through the investigation process, penalties are at the higher end and HMRC has greater control over the process
• Innocent errors: if the omission was genuinely not careless (e.g. due to an honest misunderstanding about the threshold), penalties can be reduced to zero. The Let Property Campaign does not prevent you from asserting an innocent error position
• Interest accrues from the original due date regardless of how the disclosure is made — this is unavoidable. The statutory late payment interest rate applies to all unpaid tax

How far back must you go? Time limits

HMRC's time limits depend on the behaviour that caused the omission:

• Innocent error (no carelessness): HMRC can only assess the 4 tax years before the tax year in which the assessment is made. E.g. in 2025/26, HMRC can go back to 2021/22
• Careless behaviour: HMRC can assess 6 years back. Carelessness means you did not take reasonable care, e.g. you knew you should be registering for self-assessment but did not get around to it
• Deliberate omission: HMRC can go back 20 years. Deliberate means you knew you owed tax and chose not to declare it
• Offshore income: where the undisclosed rental income is from overseas property, HMRC's time limits are extended — up to 12 years for careless behaviour and 20 years for deliberate omissions involving offshore income
• The Let Property Campaign guidance states that HMRC will accept disclosures covering up to 20 years where appropriate. However, most straightforward omissions (careless behaviour) require disclosing and paying for a maximum of 6 years

Calculating the tax and interest owed

To complete a Let Property Campaign disclosure you need to calculate for each year:

• Gross rental income received in each tax year (April to April): include all rent received, including any premium paid at the start of the tenancy
• Deduct allowable rental expenses in each year: letting agent fees, repairs and maintenance (not improvements), landlord insurance, mortgage interest (subject to Section 24 restriction if personal ownership after April 2017), professional fees, and other allowable costs. See the allowable expenses guide for the full list
• Taxable rental profit: gross income less allowable expenses. Add this to your other income for each year to determine the marginal rate at which it is taxed
• Tax owed on the rental profit: calculate income tax at your marginal rate (20%, 40%, or 45%) on the rental profit in each year, after the personal allowance and any other reliefs
• Interest: statutory interest accrues on each year's unpaid tax from the original 31 January deadline. HMRC's voluntary disclosure calculator will compute this automatically if you use it
• Penalty: calculated as a percentage of the tax owed in each year, based on the behaviour category (innocent, careless, deliberate) and whether the disclosure is prompted or unprompted

Frequently asked questions