Accountants for UK property investors, developers and landlords
Whether you hold a portfolio, run property SPVs or develop sites for sale, we keep your records, returns and property decisions joined up, so you know the tax position before you buy, build, sell or refinance, not after.
In short: NDCA is an ACCA-regulated accountancy practice for people who invest in and develop property across the UK. We handle rental income and expenses, SPV and development company accounts, Corporation Tax, Self Assessment, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax when you sell. Your agreed services are covered by one fixed monthly fee.
We work with portfolio landlords, property investors, SPV companies and property developers, mainly in Xero.
Your tax position is managed all year, not rushed in January.
What NDCA clients say
Verified Google reviews from NDCA clients.
In short: NDCA is an ACCA-regulated accountancy practice for people who invest in and develop property across the UK. We handle rental income and expenses, SPV and development company accounts, Corporation Tax, Self Assessment, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax when you sell. Your agreed services are covered by one fixed monthly fee.
We work with portfolio landlords, property investors, SPV companies and property developers, mainly in Xero.
Your tax position is managed all year, not rushed in January.
Property income we handle
Rental income is not one thing. Different income streams have different tax treatments, different reporting rules and different MTD positions. The most common we see:
- Residential rental income: taxed as property income, under income tax if you own personally or corporation tax inside a company
- Jointly-owned property: each owner reports their share, and the split affects both the tax bill and who falls into MTD
- Former furnished holiday lets: now taxed as standard rental income after the FHL regime was abolished in April 2025
- Commercial rental income: no Section 24 restriction, but option-to-tax VAT implications
- Property held through a company: rental profits taxed under corporation tax, with dividends taxed again when you take money out
- Overseas rental income: reported on the foreign pages of your return, with foreign tax credit relief where tax has been paid abroad
Rent-a-room income, lease premiums and other less common receipts have their own rules too, and we deal with them case by case.
What can a landlord claim as an allowable expense?
This is the single biggest area where landlords either overpay tax or claim things they should not. The rule is simple in principle: expenses are allowable if they are incurred wholly and exclusively for the rental business. The application is where it gets tricky.
- Running costs: letting agent fees, ground rent and service charges, council tax during void periods, buildings and contents insurance
- Repairs and upkeep: like-for-like repairs and maintenance, replacement of domestic items (sofas, white goods), cleaning and gardening between tenancies
- Professional costs: legal fees for tenancies under one year or renewals, accountancy fees, landlord body membership
- Finding tenants: advertising, tenant referencing, inventory checks
- Travel: genuine business journeys to and from the property
Not allowable against rental income (improvements and purchase costs count towards capital gains instead):
- Improvements that go beyond restoring the property to its original condition (extensions, new kitchens that are an upgrade, loft conversions)
- The original purchase price and acquisition costs (stamp duty, legal fees on purchase)
- Personal-use portion of any expense
- Mortgage capital repayments (only the interest is relevant, and for individuals with residential property it falls under Section 24)
Subject to special rules:
- Mortgage interest: for individual landlords with residential property, only a 20% basic-rate tax credit, not a deductible expense
- Wear and tear: the old 10% allowance was abolished in 2016 and replaced with the replacement of domestic items relief
- Pre-letting expenses: allowable in the first year of letting if incurred within seven years of starting
The line between “repair” and “improvement” is where most disputes happen. Replacing a worn-out kitchen with a similar one is a repair. Replacing it with a high-end fitted kitchen is partly a repair and partly an improvement. We apply the right split to every expense as it comes in.
The tax issues that catch property investors out
Property tax is its own world. The rules differ depending on how you hold the property, how many you own, who you share them with and what you do with them. The issues we handle most often:
Section 24 mortgage interest restriction
Mortgage interest is no longer a deductible expense for individual residential landlords.
For property held personally, you receive a 20% basic-rate tax credit on the interest instead of a full deduction. For a higher-rate taxpayer with a leveraged portfolio, this changes the after-tax return on every property. We model the impact on your figures and, where relevant, compare it with holding through a company.
Capital gains on property disposals
Where there is tax to pay on a UK residential property sale, it must be reported and paid within 60 days of completion.
The gain is broadly the sale price less the original cost, buying and selling costs and capital improvements, with the annual exempt amount (currently £3,000 per individual) deducted. Residential property gains are taxed at 18% within the basic rate band and 24% above it. Private Residence Relief can cover periods when the property was your main home, and Letting Relief now only applies where you shared the home with your tenant. We prepare the 60-day return and tie it into your annual self assessment.
Jointly-owned property
The default split of rental income is not always the right one for tax.
Spouses and civil partners who own property jointly are taxed 50/50 by default, even if they own it in unequal shares, unless they file a Form 17 declaration to be taxed on their actual beneficial shares. A deed of trust is often used to set out those shares. Other joint owners are generally taxed on their share of the profits. The split affects each owner’s tax bill and whether each owner falls inside MTD. We model the options and document the position.
Furnished holiday lets
The Furnished Holiday Letting (FHL) regime was abolished from 6 April 2025 for income tax (1 April 2025 for corporation tax). The old advantages, including full mortgage interest relief, capital allowances on furniture and equipment and Business Asset Disposal Relief on sale, have all gone. Income from former FHL properties is now treated as standard property income, meaning mortgage interest is restricted to a 20% basic-rate credit (same as buy-to-let) and capital allowances are no longer available on new expenditure. If you previously relied on FHL treatment, your tax position has changed and your return needs updating. We model the impact and adjust your reporting.
SPV and limited company property structures
Holding property through a company changes the tax position, for better or worse depending on your circumstances.
Limited company landlords deduct mortgage interest in full and pay corporation tax on profits instead of income tax, but taking money out usually means dividends, which are taxed again personally. Moving existing properties into a company is normally treated as a sale at market value, which can trigger capital gains tax and stamp duty. The compliance burden is also higher: statutory accounts, corporation tax returns and director self assessment. The right structure depends on the portfolio, financing, your tax position and long-term plans, so we model the personal and company routes side by side before any decision is made. We prepare statutory accounts, CT600 returns and director personal returns for property SPVs.
Property development and trading companies
Building or converting property to sell is a trade, not an investment, and HMRC taxes it differently.
Profits on development sales are trading income, taxed under Corporation Tax inside a company, and the sites sit on the balance sheet as stock and work in progress rather than fixed assets. Many developers set up a separate SPV for each project to ring-fence finance and risk. VAT needs planning before work starts: the first sale of a new-build home is zero-rated, which lets the developer reclaim VAT on build costs, while conversions and refurbishments have their own rules, including reduced rates in some cases. Developers who pay subcontractors for construction work also fall under the Construction Industry Scheme. We set up the structure, track costs and work in progress project by project and handle VAT, CIS, Corporation Tax and the director returns.
Stamp Duty Land Tax surcharges
In England and Northern Ireland, buy-to-let purchases attract a 5% surcharge above the standard SDLT rates.
Additional properties bought on or after 31 October 2024 are subject to a 5% surcharge on top of the standard SDLT rate at every band (up from the previous 3% surcharge).
The surcharge applies to second homes, buy-to-lets and properties bought by companies. Scotland and Wales have their own property transaction taxes with separate surcharges. We model the cost as part of any purchase planning.
Non-UK resident buyers face an additional 2% SDLT surcharge on top, which can stack with the 5% additional property surcharge to produce effective rates of up to 7% above the standard SDLT bands.
Making Tax Digital for landlords
The biggest compliance change for landlords in years, though not every landlord is in scope yet. MTD for Income Tax has applied since 6 April 2026 where qualifying income, meaning gross rental income plus any self-employment income, is over £50,000. The threshold falls to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028.
For most landlords, this means:
- Moving from spreadsheets and paper records to HMRC-compatible software
- Keeping records up to date throughout the year, not at the end of it
- Submitting quarterly updates for each income source (UK property, overseas property and any self-employment are reported separately), then one final declaration after the tax year ends
- Reporting jointly-owned property at the right ownership percentage on each owner’s return
NDCA gets landlords on Xero before the deadline, sets up the property schedules correctly and runs the quarterly submissions for you. Check whether you are in scope on gov.uk, or see our Making Tax Digital page for the full rule set.
How NDCA works
What you can expect:
- Fixed monthly fee
You pay one price every month for everything we agreed at the start: bookkeeping, MTD submissions, year-end work, self assessment, capital gains returns when they happen. No clock-watching, no per-form charges. We agree your fixed fee after a free call, before you join. - Direct answers from your accountant
You get a named accountant who knows your portfolio, not a ticket queue, and a reply, normally the same day. - Built around the property cycle
Property tax does not work on a calendar. It works on completion dates, rent review dates, tenant changes, mortgage refinances and disposal events. We build the rhythm around when those things happen, not around a fixed April-to-April cycle.
The software we use: Xero and Apron
We run landlord bookkeeping in Xero. That matters.
Each property is set up as a tracking category in Xero, so rental income, expenses and net profit are visible property-by-property, not lumped together. Live bank feeds mean rent is reconciled the day it arrives. And for MTD, Xero is on the HMRC list of recognised software, so quarterly updates go straight from your records to HMRC with no spreadsheet workaround.
For paperwork such as repair invoices, materials receipts, agent fees and insurance renewals, we use Apron. Forward an invoice to your dedicated Apron email address or snap a photo of a receipt, and the supplier, date, amount, VAT and line items are extracted straight into Xero.
Buying, selling or refinancing a property?
Property tax decisions tend to happen around transactions, not at year end: on completion, at remortgage or when a sale is agreed. Send us the details before the deal closes so we can plan the tax side with you.
Reviews
Discover why businesses trust us for dependable accounting services and practical financial advice.
What NDCA clients say
We work with businesses across the UK and beyond, delivering results that speak for themselves. Browse our reviews to see the impact we have made, and if you have worked with us, we would love for you to leave a review on Google
Switching from another accountant
If you already have an accountant and you are not happy, switching is simpler than people think. We send your current accountant a professional clearance letter, collect your records and pick up where they left off. How long it takes depends mainly on how quickly your previous accountant sends the records across, and we keep you updated throughout.
You do not need to wait for year-end. You do not need an awkward phone call. We handle it.
Landlord and property investor FAQs
Not strictly, but most single-property landlords still benefit from having one. The Section 24 calculation, the allowable expenses rules, capital gains on disposal and the upcoming MTD threshold drops all catch landlords out. An accountant pays for themselves in the year you sell, the year you remortgage or the year MTD applies.
Only if your qualifying income is over the threshold, which is £50,000 now, then £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028. Landlords below the threshold do not need to join yet, but more single-property landlords will come into scope as it falls, so it is worth checking your figures now.
For residential property you own personally, no. You get the 20% basic-rate credit instead. The restriction does not apply to commercial property or to limited company landlords.
It depends on your tax rate, how the properties are financed, whether you plan to keep or sell and whether you want to take income out or reinvest it. Company ownership avoids the Section 24 restriction, but profits taken out as dividends are taxed again and transferring properties you already own usually brings a tax bill on the transfer itself. We model both routes with your actual figures before you decide.
After deducting costs, improvements and the £3,000 annual exempt amount, residential gains are charged at 18% or 24% depending on your income. Where tax is due, you report and pay within 60 days of completion, and the gain also goes on your annual return.
Letting agent fees, insurance, ground rent, service charges, repairs, replacement of domestic items, cleaning, advertising, accountancy fees, travel for genuine business reasons and council tax during void periods are all allowable. Improvements, the original purchase price and the personal-use portion of any expense are not. Mortgage interest is subject to Section 24 restrictions for individual residential landlords.
Yes. Rental losses must be reported and can be carried forward against future rental profits of the same property business. Losses cannot be set against other income (like employment or self-employment), but they reduce your tax in later profitable years.
Two changes were announced, and neither is in force yet. From 6 April 2027, income tax on property income rises by 2 percentage points, to 22% basic rate, 42% higher rate and 47% additional rate. This applies to rental income you receive personally. Company landlords are not affected, since company rental profits are taxed under corporation tax at 19% to 25%. Separately, from April 2028 a new annual High Value Council Tax Surcharge applies to homes in England valued at over £2 million, ranging from £2,500 to £7,500 a year depending on value. The government estimates it will affect fewer than 1% of properties. If either change could affect you, it is worth reviewing your position before it takes effect.
Yes. NDCA is regulated by the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).
We are remote-first. We work with landlords and property investors across the UK using Xero, so location does not matter.
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Ready to hand over your property tax?
Whether you run a growing portfolio, a property SPV or a development company, we keep the records, the MTD updates and the returns moving through the year, so nothing lands on you in January. Send us a few details and we will give you a fixed monthly quote at the end of your free consultation call.
