HMRC Let Property Campaign nears £550 million after 13 years

HMRC’s Let Property Campaign has drawn nearly 100,000 disclosures and is closing in on £550 million in tax, interest and penalties from landlords. The figures underscore both the campaign’s long-running open-ended status and the higher costs of prompted compliance checks.

Why it matters: - HMRC’s Let Property Campaign remains one of the main routes for landlords to regularize unpaid UK and overseas rental tax. - The campaign has now generated nearly £550 million in tax, interest and penalties, showing the financial scale of rental-property noncompliance. - The open-ended structure means landlords can still use the campaign without a formal deadline.

What happened: - Ex-HMRC tax inspector Amit Puri said the campaign has been running for about 13 years and has received about 100,000 disclosures to date. - Puri said HMRC had earlier estimated that about 1.5 million landlords had underpaid or failed to pay tax. - HMRC had also estimated unpaid tax for 2009 and 2010 at about £500 million. - Puri’s article, written for AccountingWEB.co.uk, said the campaign is nearing £550 million in total revenue secured.

The details: - HMRC confirmed to Puri that about 0.5% of the 58,574 disclosures made at that point involved the most serious cases, described as deliberate inaccuracies or deliberate failures to notify. - Puri said penalty rates were more than twice as high in HMRC compliance checks and enquiries than in Let Property Campaign disclosures over the same period. - Puri said the higher returns from one-to-one enquiries were more than double in 2024/25 when tax, interest and penalties were combined. - The campaign is aimed at professional, amateur and first-time landlords who owe tax on residential property let in the UK or abroad. - HMRC uses the campaign as a lower-friction way for taxpayers to bring rental tax affairs up to date.

Between the lines: - The gap between the number of expected noncompliant landlords and the number of disclosures suggests uptake has been limited. - Voluntary disclosures likely face lower penalties than prompted cases, which helps explain why HMRC enforcement checks can produce higher total recoveries. - The campaign’s open-ended design may reduce urgency for some landlords to act quickly. - Puri warned that prompted disclosures can carry higher penalties and, in serious cases, may lead to Code of Practice 9 investigations or the Contractual Disclosure Facility. - Puri also noted that taxpayers can face public naming and shaming in some cases.

What's next: - Landlords with undeclared rental income can still use the campaign to correct past returns. - Taxpayers with limited experience in disclosures may need specialist advice to handle HMRC time limits, assessment rules and penalty exposure. - HMRC compliance activity is likely to remain a stronger revenue driver than purely voluntary disclosures if the current pattern continues.

The bottom line: - HMRC’s Let Property Campaign is still open, still collecting, and still leaving room for landlords to clean up past tax errors before enforcement does it for them.