Digital records
Each payment in and out, with its date, amount and category, kept in software. Spreadsheets can be used with software that sends the figures.
Guide for hosts
Making Tax Digital for Airbnb hosts: who is in, from when, and what counts.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax counts your short-let rent before any costs. A host whose bookings came to £36,000 in the 2025 to 2026 tax year is in from April 2027 - even if their profit was £14,000. Here is how it works out.
Who is in, and from when
| If your qualifying income was over | In the tax year | You are in from |
|---|---|---|
| £50,000 | 2024 to 2025 | 6 April 2026 |
| £30,000 | 2025 to 2026 | 6 April 2027 |
| £20,000 | 2026 to 2027 | 6 April 2028 |
HMRC works it out from a tax return you have already sent, and writes to tell you.
What counts: your rent before costs
- Your rent, gross. What guests paid for their stays, including the cleaning fees you charged - before the platforms' fees and before any of your costs.
- Plus any self-employed income, also before costs.
- Owned jointly: only your share. A let taking £50,000 a year, owned half and half, puts £25,000 towards each owner's figure.
- Not counted: wages from a job, pensions, dividends, and your share of a partnership's profit.
This is why recording only your payouts is risky: payouts are after the platforms' fees, so they understate the figure HMRC measures.
What it asks of you
Four updates a year
Your figures for the year so far, due by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. No tax is paid with them.
Then your tax return
By 31 January after the tax year ends, as now, sent through the software, with your final figures and any reliefs.
If you cannot use software - because of your age, a disability or where you live, for example - you can apply to HMRC for an exemption.
Getting ready
- Work out your qualifying income for 2025 to 2026 from your gross bookings, not your payouts.
- Keep each let's income and costs apart, and keep mortgage interest on its own line.
- Have a year of your figures in order before the first update is due, so the first quarter is not the first time you look.
Where Stoneledger stands
Stoneledger Hosts keeps the digital records Making Tax Digital asks for, property by property, in the categories HMRC uses, with your qualifying income worked out from your gross bookings. Sending updates to HMRC is done through Stoneledger, which has completed its testing in HMRC’s sandbox and is preparing its applications to HMRC. Until HMRC grants Stoneledger live access, it cannot send anything to HMRC, so if you have to submit before then, use software on HMRC’s list.
Letting long-term as well, or self-employed too? Making Tax Digital for landlords covers long lets, and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax the rest.
Sources, read on 7 October 2026: GOV.UK, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax for sole traders and landlords; Work out your qualifying income; Send quarterly updates.
More for hosts
Keep reading, or try it on your own file.
Airbnb accounting in the UK
What to record, when it counts, and how to keep it right all year.
Holiday let tax after April 2025
What changed when the furnished holiday lettings rules ended.
What an Airbnb host can claim
The costs that count, the ones that do not, and the box each goes in.
Airbnb payouts and your bank
Why the money in your bank never matches your bookings, and how to tie them up.
Booking.com for UK hosts
Commission, payment fees and VAT on fees, and how payouts are made up.
Beyond the host spreadsheet
What a spreadsheet does well, and where it starts to cost you.
Free Airbnb profit check
Your own file, read on your device: what you were paid, and what you made.
See what your own lets actually made.
Stoneledger Hosts reads your Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo files, takes your costs and your bank statement, and shows your true profit, property by property. Start with the free check on your own file.
Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo are trademarks of their owners. Stoneledger Hosts is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by them. This guide is general information, not tax advice; for your own circumstances, speak to a qualified adviser.