Managing foreign property income under MTD in untied

Foreign property income has a specific flow for MTD in untied. It needs to be reported on a country by country basis. It's all built around custom tags, and the video below shows you want you need to do.

Full capability only shows once you have a paid account, have been signed up for MTD and have linked the software to HMRC.

But to get going, you can create custom tags BEFORE linking to HMRC, and then complete the mapping afterwards if you prefer.

There may also be further information required at the end of the year - if you are in MTD with untied for 2025/26 contact us after the end of the tax year and we can set this up. Note the tax return is due by 31 January 2027 - not with the final quarterly update.

More details

For most people using Making Tax Digital (MTD), untied automatically maps your records to the data required by HMRC. However, if any of the following apply, you’ll need to complete an additional manual setup step:

• You have more than one self-employment income source
• Your income from a single MTD source is over £90,000
• You have foreign property income

This article explains how to set up custom tags so that untied can map your data correctly to HMRC.

What Are Custom Tags?

Custom tags let you tell untied exactly how to map your income and expenses to the correct HMRC categories. This is essential when HMRC requires more detail than can be determined automatically — for example, when you have multiple properties or income from overseas.

How to Access Custom Tags

1. Open untied in your browser.
2. In the left-hand menu, go to Profile & Settings.
3. Select the Custom Tags tab at the top.
4. Tick to enable Foreign Property Income tags

This page lets you map what you’ve tagged in untied to HMRC’s required MTD structure.

Setting Up Tags for Foreign Property Income

In this example, we’ll set up custom tags for two foreign properties — one in Estonia and one in France. The same approach applies to any country.

1. Create an Income Tag

1. Select Add custom tag.

   Choose Money in.

   Map this to Foreign property income as the main tax tag.

2. Enter a description such as Estonia property income.
3. Add a short tag name — eg Estonia.

2. Link the Tag to Your MTD Income Source

1. Under MTD Business, scroll to find your foreign property income source.
2. Select it.
3. Choose the country code — in this example, Estonia.
4. Select the MTD category (eg Rent).

Foreign property tax credits are treated as a special tag under foreign property income (contact us if you want to know more about this as there are multiple possible tax treatments).

Setting Up Expense Tags

If your income from this property is not more than £90,000, you can report expenses as a single consolidated amount.

Create a custom tag for expenses in the same way:

• Choose Money out
• Enter a description (eg Estonia property expenses)
• Use the same MTD Business source
• Select the appropriate country and category

Repeat the above for any additional foreign properties.

Some items may need to be reported separately (eg mortgage interest) - you can map this when you set up your tags.

Tagging Your Transactions

Once your custom tags are set up:

1. Go to your Transactions page.

   Tag rental income and expenses accordingly — for example:

   • Rental receipts from your property
   • Travel or maintenance costs related to visiting the property
   • Other expenses linked to your property

This ensures each transaction is correctly linked to the right property and country.

Submitting an MTD In-Year or Quarterly Update

To submit your foreign property update:

1. In the left-hand menu, go to Making Tax Digital.
2. Go to the Quarterly update obligations for foreign property.
3. Choose the relevant update period.
4. Select Submit.
5. You’ll see a breakdown of income and expenses by country.
6. Choose the date up to which you’re submitting.
7. Select Submit to send your data to HMRC.

This fulfils your in-year or quarterly update requirement for foreign property under MTD.

End-of-Year Filing

All the information you’ve submitted — including your foreign property data — will be automatically incorporated into your end-of-year MTD tax return, which you will also file through untied.