Welcome to the Income & Expenses support centre for RentalBux. These guides show you how to record every pound of rental income and every allowable expense — using HMRC's required categories for Making Tax Digital (MTD) — so your quarterly submissions are built on complete, accurate records.
How do I record rental income in RentalBux?
Create a rent invoice for each property and tenancy, set it to recur monthly and track payment status from the Invoices & Bills module. Payments link automatically to bank reconciliation, and you can send reminders when rent falls overdue. If your letting agent manages collection, upload their monthly CSV or PDF statements and RentalBux maps rent received, management fees and maintenance deducted to the correct categories automatically.
How do I record expenses?
Log expenses in HMRC-compliant categories — repairs, insurance, letting agent fees and mortgage interest under the Section 24 rules. For paper receipts, open the Invoices & Bills tab in the mobile app and tap Scan Receipt: the OCR engine extracts the supplier, amount, date and VAT, then creates a ready-to-review transaction you can link to the relevant property. Scan receipts straight away — HMRC can request evidence up to six years later, and paper fades.
Why do HMRC categories matter?
A quarterly MTD update is not one total figure. It is a breakdown of rental income, allowable expenses and disallowable expenses by HMRC category. Miscategorised transactions can trigger a compliance review or an incorrect tax calculation. RentalBux auto-categorises most imported bank transactions from the description, amount and payee, and flags anything it cannot match with confidence for manual review.
Repairs vs improvements — the categorisation to get right
HMRC treats repairs (restoring to original condition) as allowable, while improvements (enhancing beyond original condition) are capital expenditure, not deductible annually. RentalBux's expense selector follows HMRC's own distinction, with guidance notes and links to the relevant HMRC guidance built in.
FAQ
When should I review my categorisation? Monthly — corrections are easy now and painful at quarter-end. Run a trial balance before every MTD submission.
Who must comply with MTD? Landlords with gross income over £50,000, from April 2026.
Is RentalBux free? Your first property is free until March 2028, with full MTD compliance. No credit card required.