Tax returns, Making Tax Digital, property bookkeeping and the incorporation question for London landlords, handled remotely by phone, video and email.
The short version. London is in England, so a rental purchase attracts Stamp Duty Land Tax paid to HMRC, with the higher rates for additional dwellings sitting 5 percentage points above the standard rates since 31 October 2024. Rental profit is taxed on the UK bands, and gets its own rates of 22%, 42% and 47% from 6 April 2027. The letting is governed by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, whose first phase came into force on 1 May 2026. Licensing is the part that is genuinely local, and it is set by one of the 32 London boroughs, or the City of London Corporation.
England means Stamp Duty Land Tax, filed and paid to HMRC. On a rental purchase you pay the higher rates for additional dwellings, which have been 5 percentage points above the standard rates since 31 October 2024 and bite on any additional property costing £40,000 or more: 5% to £125,000, 7% to £250,000, 10% to £925,000, 15% to £1.5 million and 17% above that. A company buying a single dwelling for more than £500,000 faces a flat 17% unless a relief applies — property rental business relief is the one most buy-to-let companies rely on, and it is subject to clawback. A buyer who has not been in the UK for at least 183 days in the preceding 12 months adds a further 2 percentage points on top of everything else.
Rental profit is taxed on the UK bands, and from 6 April 2027 property income gets its own rates of 22%, 42% and 47%, with the Section 24 finance cost reducer moving to 22%. The letting itself is governed by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, whose first phase came into force on 1 May 2026 for new and existing tenancies alike. And from April 2028 the High Value Council Tax Surcharge — an England-only measure — charges the owner, not the occupier, of residential property worth £2 million or more: £2,500 a year up to £2.5 million, £3,500 up to £3.5 million, £5,000 up to £5 million and £7,500 above that.
The surcharge is the number people get wrong most often, and getting it wrong is a three-figure error on a modest purchase and a five-figure one on a large purchase. Whichever nation you are in, capital gains tax is not devolved: a sale is taxed at 18% within the basic rate band and 24% above it, the annual exempt amount is £3,000, and both the report and the payment are due within 60 days of completion. You can run the sums on our stamp duty calculator, which covers all three UK regimes, and on the capital gains calculator.
On the ground
London is not one rental market and, for a landlord, not one rulebook either. Council tax, licensing and enforcement are handled by 32 separate London boroughs and the City of London Corporation, so two flats a mile apart can sit under entirely different licensing regimes.
That fragmentation is the practical problem with owning in London. Selective licensing is designated borough by borough under Part 3 of the Housing Act 2004, so the question "do I need a licence?" has 33 possible answers and has to be asked property by property. Newham's designation is the clearest illustration: it runs from 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2028 and covers the borough apart from the Stratford Olympic Park and Royal Victoria wards. A landlord with one flat in Newham and one next door in another borough is dealing with two authorities, two renewal dates and two sets of conditions.
London is also where the High Value Council Tax Surcharge lands hardest, because it is pegged to value rather than to income. From April 2028 a residential property in England worth £2 million or more attracts £2,500 a year up to £2.5 million, £3,500 up to £3.5 million, £5,000 up to £5 million and £7,500 above that, and it is charged on the owner, not the occupier. For a landlord that is a new annual cost with no rent attached to it, first billed in March 2028, and it belongs in the cash plan now rather than arriving as a surprise on a bill.
One national change is worth knowing before you look at your own borough. Until recently a council needed the Secretary of State's confirmation before designating a selective licensing scheme covering more than 20% of its area or of its private rented stock. A new General Approval took effect on 23 December 2024 and removed that: a local housing authority in England can now designate a scheme of any size without confirmation, subject to the Part 3 requirements and a consultation of at least ten weeks. Borough-wide schemes are therefore easier to bring in than they were, and a London portfolio can pick up new licensing obligations between one tax year and the next.
Mandatory HMO licensing sits underneath all of it and is national: five or more people forming more than one household and sharing a toilet, bathroom or kitchen means a licence from the borough, whatever else has been designated.
University College London, King's College London, the London School of Economics, Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London draw tenants into the same market as the professional lets, which is part of why so much London stock is converted, shared or in multiple occupation. For the accounts that matters, because shared houses produce a different expense profile: far more furniture and appliance replacement, claimed under replacement of domestic items relief rather than as a capital allowance, and more work that has to be split correctly between a deductible repair and a capital improvement.
Working together
For a London landlord the first thing to establish is which borough governs each property and what that borough currently requires, because the answer is not portable across the river. After that we look at the value of each property against the High Value Council Tax Surcharge bands, which start at £2 million and step up at £2.5 million, £3.5 million and £5 million from April 2028, since that charge falls on the owner and does not care whether the property is let. Then the ordinary work: whether Making Tax Digital has already caught you, and what the finance cost restriction is really costing.
We work with landlords in London remotely: phone and video calls around your working day, with records and approvals handled securely online. We do not have an office in London. What you get instead is a practice that already knows the England position: SDLT rather than whichever regime the last article assumed, the right income tax bands, and the Making Tax Digital timetable that now sits on top of both. Tell us what you own and where and we will reply within one working day with a fixed monthly fee.
We do not advise on whether to buy, sell, refinance or gear a property, in London or anywhere else. That is an investment decision and, in the case of a mortgage, regulated advice that belongs with a broker. Explaining how a tax rule works and what it costs you is a different job, and it is the one we do.
London is in England, and that settles three things at once. The tax on the purchase is SDLT, and on a buy-to-let or second home you also pay the higher rates for additional dwellings — 5 percentage points above the standard rates since 31 October 2024, on any additional property costing £40,000 or more. The tax on the profit is UK income tax bands of 20%, 40% and 45%. And the letting itself is governed by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, Phase 1 in force since 1 May 2026. What does not change with the nation: Making Tax Digital, the Section 24 finance cost restriction, and capital gains tax on a disposal are all UK-wide.
The borough the property physically sits in, and there are 32 of them plus the City of London Corporation. Selective licensing is designated locally under Part 3 of the Housing Act 2004, so a scheme in one borough tells you nothing about the next. Newham's current designation, for example, runs from 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2028 and covers the borough apart from the Stratford Olympic Park and Royal Victoria wards. Since a new General Approval took effect on 23 December 2024, an English council no longer needs the Secretary of State's confirmation to designate a scheme of any size, so borough-wide schemes are easier to introduce than they were. Mandatory HMO licensing at five or more occupants forming more than one household applies everywhere regardless.
It applies to residential property in England worth £2 million or more from April 2028, at £2,500 a year up to £2.5 million, £3,500 up to £3.5 million, £5,000 up to £5 million and £7,500 above that, with the first bills issued in March 2028 and revaluations every five years. The point landlords keep missing is who pays: the surcharge is levied on the owner, not the occupier, so it lands on you rather than on your tenant, and it is due whether the property is let, empty or between tenancies. It is an England-only measure — it does not apply in Wales or Scotland, and Northern Ireland has domestic rates rather than council tax, so it has no application there either.
Each property is taxed where it stands, and the arithmetic does not travel. A purchase in London attracts SDLT, paid to HMRC. Elsewhere in the UK it is whichever regime governs that nation: Stamp Duty Land Tax to HMRC in England and Northern Ireland, Land Transaction Tax to the Welsh Revenue Authority in Wales, and Land and Buildings Transaction Tax with an 8% Additional Dwelling Supplement to Revenue Scotland. Registration and licensing are separate again — in England the position is no national landlord register yet — Phase 2 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 brings in a Private Rented Sector Database, and the published roadmap puts that from late 2026, subject to consultation. Income tax is the part to settle deliberately, because the rates on your rental profit are a question about you rather than about any one property.
No. We work with landlords across England and the rest of the UK remotely — video, phone and email, with records and approvals handled securely online. That is deliberate rather than a limitation, because what decides your tax bill is not local knowledge but jurisdictional knowledge: which transaction tax applies on the purchase (SDLT, paid to HMRC), which income tax rates apply to the profit (UK income tax bands of 20%, 40% and 45%), which law governs the letting (the Renters' Rights Act 2025, Phase 1 in force since 1 May 2026), and the Making Tax Digital timetable on top of all of it. If one of the free calculators on this site raises a question about your own figures, send it to us and we will answer it.
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