Non-Resident Landlord Tax for Overseas Owners of UK Property
Written and reviewed by the International Tax Accountants editorial team. Last reviewed 29 July 2026.
If you own UK rental property but live abroad, your rent falls inside the Non-resident Landlord Scheme. Under that scheme an agent or tenant deducts tax at the basic rate from the rent unless HMRC has approved you to be paid gross, and either way a UK return still has to be filed.
We run that from end to end. We register you under the scheme, apply for gross payment where it makes sense, and file the return that reports the property income and offsets any tax already deducted.
The mechanics of the scheme itself are set out in our guide to the Non-resident Landlord Scheme. This page is the compliance we are engaged to handle for you.
What the Landlord Engagement Covers
We register you correctly for the scheme and, where appropriate, apply for approval to receive rent gross, so tax is not withheld at source and then reclaimed. The forms differ by owner type: NRL1i for individuals, NRL2i for companies and NRL3i for trustees.
We then prepare and file the annual return. Since 6 April 2020, non-resident company landlords pay corporation tax and file a CT600, while individuals remain within Self Assessment. The scheme deduction, currently the basic rate of 20 per cent, is offset against the tax due on the return.
The scheme is set out in SI 1995/2902, and we operate it in line with HMRC guidance on tax on UK rental income when you live abroad.
Where Non-Resident Landlord Tax Gets Awkward
The most common problem is tax withheld unnecessarily. Without gross-payment approval, your agent or tenant deducts at the basic rate throughout the year, tying up cash that then has to be recovered through the return. Getting the approval in place early avoids that.
The 2020 shift from income tax to corporation tax for company landlords is the other trap. It changed the return, the deadlines and the way losses and finance costs work, and an owner still filing as if nothing changed can end up out of step with HMRC. We make sure the right regime is applied.
How We Run Registration and the Return
We start by confirming whether you are inside the scheme, then register you and lodge the gross-payment application where the numbers support it. That settles how rent reaches you before a full year of deductions builds up.
Each year we prepare the return that fits your status, a CT600 for a company or a Self Assessment return for an individual, report the property income and expenses, and offset any tax the agent or tenant has already deducted. Where you also have cross-border VAT exposure on the property, we can pick that up as an international VAT engagement.
What the Landlord Work Costs
We work to a fixed fee agreed before we start, set against the number of properties and whether the owner is an individual or a company. Registration, the gross-payment application and the annual return are scoped together.
For an overview of how this sits alongside our other cross-border work, start from the international tax accountants homepage.