Are Accountant Fees Tax Deductible for Landlords?
Rental accounts, property pages, bookkeeping and MTD submissions — allowable. Purchase, sale and personal-planning advice — not. Mixed invoices explained.
The short answer
Yes, for the rental business. Fees for preparing your rental accounts, completing the property pages of your return, bookkeeping and MTD submissions are deductible. Fees for personal tax planning, buying or selling a property, or defending an enquiry into deliberate errors are not.
HMRC’s manual is generous here: the cost of preparing accounts and tax computations for the rental business is allowable, and by long-standing practice so is the part of the return-preparation fee that relates to property income. What it will not allow is anything capital or personal dressed up as accountancy.
Allowable vs not
| Fee | Treatment |
|---|---|
| Preparing rental accounts / property pages of your return | Allowable |
| Bookkeeping, software and MTD quarterly submissions | Allowable |
| Landlord tax software subscription | Allowable |
| Advice on a specific letting problem (e.g. void, expense query) | Allowable |
| Advice on buying, selling or incorporating a property | Capital — add to CGT base cost or not deductible |
| Personal tax planning, inheritance-tax advice, wills | Not allowable |
| Fees defending an HMRC enquiry that finds careless or deliberate errors | Not allowable (allowable if no adjustment results) |
| Company formation and Companies House fees | Not allowable against personal rental income |
Mixed invoices
If one accountant’s bill covers your self-employment, your rental property and personal advice, ask for a split — or apportion it reasonably and note how. Under MTD, the property share must be recorded in the property business, not lumped into another income source.
MTD raised this cost for many landlords
Quarterly updates mean either software (£100–£300 a year for landlord tools) or an agent doing four extra submissions. Both are deductible — the relief softens the compliance burden by your marginal rate.
Worked example
A higher-rate landlord pays £650 for rental accounts and return preparation plus £180 for MTD software in 2026/27 — £830 of allowable cost.
| Deducting £830 in 2026/27 | Effect |
|---|---|
| Basic-rate landlord (20%) | £166 less tax |
| Higher-rate landlord (40%) | £332 less tax |
| Additional-rate (45%) | £374 less tax |
| From April 2027 (property rates 22/42/47%) | slightly more — the deduction is worth more as rates rise |
What to keep
The invoice describing the work, proof of payment, and — for anything near the repair/improvement line — a sentence in your records saying what was there before. HMRC enquiries into landlord expenses turn on that single fact. Digital copies satisfy MTD’s record-keeping rules.
Where it goes under Making Tax Digital
If you are inside MTD for Income Tax (mandated from April 2026 above £50,000 gross), the cost belongs in your quarterly update under the matching expense category, in the quarter you paid it (cash basis is the default for landlords). Get the category right now — the final declaration only tidies totals, it does not re-classify. Check whether MTD applies to you.
HMRC PIM2120 (legal and professional costs) · gov.uk “Work out your rental income when you let property” · rates from our verified 2026/27 dataset. Checked 31 Aug 2026.
Quick answers
Yes, where they relate to the rental business — preparing accounts, the property pages of your return, bookkeeping and MTD submissions. Personal tax planning and fees connected with buying or selling property are not.
HMRC accepts the cost of preparing rental accounts and computations. Where the return-preparation fee includes other personal matters, deduct only the property share.
Yes. Subscriptions to landlord bookkeeping or MTD software are a running cost of the property business.
Box 27 — legal, management and other professional fees — or the professional-fees category under MTD.