UK Rent a Room & Small Landlord Income Tracker (2026-27) — £7,500 Limit, Method A vs B + £1,000 Property Allowance

Taking in a lodger, hosting short stays in your spare room, or letting a garage or parking space? The Rent a Room Scheme lets you receive up to £7,500 a year tax-free from furnished accommodation in your own home, and other small lettings get a separate £1,000 property allowance. The catch is that the limits apply to gross receipts, including money for bills, meals and laundry. There are two ways to work out the taxable amount: HMRC uses your actual profit unless you tell it you want to use the other method.

This tracker keeps every payment and bill in the right UK tax year and puts the numbers side by side.

What it does

• Rent a Room check: gross receipts against your limit, £7,500, or £3,750 if someone else also gets income from letting the same home, with a progress bar and an UNDER / OVER flag.
• Method A vs Method B: over the limit, it shows HMRC's two methods side by side, Method A (actual profit: receipts minus expenses) and Method B (receipts minus the limit, no expenses; you have to tell HMRC you're choosing it), and highlights the lower figure.
• Property allowance for other lettings: for a flat, garage or parking space, it compares the £1,000 allowance with your actual expenses and shows whether you're under £1,000, should contact HMRC, or need Self Assessment.
• Each letting at a glance: income, expenses and the difference for up to 10 lettings.
• Shared bills made simple: enter the letting's share of a household bill as a %, and only that share is counted.
• Mortgage interest kept separate: Individual landlords can't deduct residential mortgage interest as an expense (relief is given as a basic-rate tax reduction instead), so it's recorded but left out of expenses.
• Month-by-month table and chart across the tax year (6 April to 5 April). Pick the tax year from a dropdown (2024-25 onwards).

What's included (one ZIP file)

• UK-Rent-a-Room-Landlord-Tracker.xlsx: the blank tracker, ready to use.
• UK-Rent-a-Room-Landlord-Tracker-EXAMPLE.xlsx: the same file filled with clearly labelled made-up data, so you can see how it works.
• A short guide to opening it in Google Sheets. Works in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice.

Good to know

• It is not tax advice. It is a record-keeping and awareness tool. Limits were checked on GOV.UK and HMRC helpsheet HS223 on 27 October 2026. Check GOV.UK or an accountant for your situation.
• It doesn't calculate your tax bill or file anything for you. The Method A / B figures are taxable amounts, not tax.
• The Rent a Room Scheme doesn't apply if your home has been converted into separate flats.
• It uses plain formulas only: no macros, no add-ons, no subscription.

Instant digital download. Refunds and cancellations: Refunds and cancellations page. This doesn't affect your statutory rights.