🎥Managing individual foreign properties for Making Tax Digital in untied for 2026/27 onwards

(See this article for the 2025/26 tax year or earlier)

From the 2026/27 tax year onwards, if you’re in Making Tax Digital (MTD) and have foreign property income, HMRC requires income and expenses to be reported on a property‑by‑property basis.

This article explains how to set this up and manage it in untied.

Step 1: Make sure you're signed up for MTD and have enabled it in untied

Make sure that you are signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and MTD is enabled in untied (you will see income sources in the MTD tab)

Step 2: Check your foreign property income source is there

1. In untied, go to Making Tax Digital from the left‑hand navigation.
2. On the left of the Quarterly Updates tab you will see your MTD income sources
3. Look for foreign property income, probably at the bottom of the list.

If you cannot see foreign property, you will need to add foreign property income in your HMRC account first. Once it is live with HMRC, it will flow through into untied automatically.

Step 3: Review or add your foreign properties

1. Select the cog icon next to your foreign property income source.
2. Wait a few seconds for the data to load from HMRC - this is by tax year
3. You will see a list of your foreign properties. Each property has:
   • A friendly name
   • A country
   • A unique HMRC property ID
   • (if applicable cessation information)

To add another foreign property:

1. Select Add foreign property.
2. Enter:
   • A friendly name (eg the property name or location)
   • The country the property is in
3. Save the property. It will be stored with HMRC and used by untied for reporting.

If you already have the correct properties listed, you can simply cancel or save without changes.

Step 4: Enable foreign property tags

To report income and expenses by property, you need to use custom tags.

1. Go to Custom rules and tags.
2. Select Custom tags.
3. Make sure foreign property tags are enabled.

This step is essential for supporting property‑by‑property foreign reporting.

Step 5: Create tags for your foreign property

You need separate tags for income and expenses for each property.

To create an income tag:

1. Create a new custom tag.
2. Give it a clear name (eg Bob & Bobby – income).
3. Set the main tax tag to foreign property income.
4. Select the relevant MTD business or income source (your foreign property source).
5. Set:
   • The tax year the tag applies from
   • The country code
   • The foreign property ID (the specific property)
   • The correct MTD category (eg rent)
6. Save the tag.

The description and income/expense toggle are not critical here; the MTD settings control the reporting.

Repeat the process for expenses:

1. Create another custom tag.
2. Name it clearly (eg Bob & Bobby – expenses).
3. Set the main tax tag to foreign property expense.
4. Select the same MTD business or income source.
5. Apply the same:
   • Tax year
   • Country code
   • Foreign property ID
6. Choose the appropriate MTD expense category (you can use consolidated expenses regardless of income level)
7. Save the tag.

Consolidated expenses

For foreign property, all expenses can be reported as consolidated expenses, regardless of the amount of income from that property. You can optionally break this down in more detail.

Step 6: Tag your transactions

Once your tags are set up:

• Tag rental income transactions with the income tag for the correct property.
• Tag property‑related costs with the matching expense tag.

Each transaction will now be clearly linked to the correct foreign property.

Step 7: Check your MTD update

1. Go back to Making Tax Digital.
2. Run a quarterly update.
3. Review the figures.

You should see:

• Rental income reported for the specific foreign property
• Expenses shown as consolidated foreign property expenses by property

Foreign taxes

If foreign taxes are being charged on your property income, see:

• Foreign taxes in untied
• 🎥untied advanced features including for withholding tax.

What this setup gives you

• Compliance with the 2026–27 onwards foreign property reporting rules
• Clear separation of income and expenses by property
• Quarterly updates sent to HMRC through untied, with totals which will be included in the end of year filings again submitted via untied