Making Tax Digital for Vrbo hosts

Vrbo now reports your income to HMRC

Under the UK’s reporting rules for digital platforms on GOV.UK, booking platforms collect and verify their UK hosts’ details and report their income to HMRC every January. This isn’t a new tax — but it does mean HMRC sees a platform’s version of your earnings. The practical takeaway: your own records should be gross-accurate and match the platform’s figures, not just your bank payouts.

Does Making Tax Digital apply to you?

MTD for Income Tax is phased in by gross qualifying income — your rental income before expenses, across all your property (short and long lets), plus any self-employment turnover: over £50,000 from April 2026, over £30,000 from April 2027, and over £20,000 from April 2028. A busy short-term let can pass these thresholds well before it feels like a “big” business — occupancy of a single popular listing can clear £20,000 gross.

Check if and when MTD applies to you →

Gross income, not payouts — the mistake to avoid

Vrbo pays you net: the booking total minus service fees. HMRC wants the gross booking income declared, with the fees claimed as an expense. Working from bank payouts alone understates both sides. That’s exactly what Quarterwise’s import fixes: it reads your earnings report and records gross income and fees separately, automatically.

Import your Vrbo earnings in minutes

1. In your Vrbo dashboard, open Reservation Manager → Financial reporting (payout reports).
2. Download the payout report CSV for the period you need — it shows gross booking amounts and deductions.
3. In Quarterwise, go to Import, upload the file, match your listings to your properties once — and your income and fees are recorded, gross and HMRC-ready. Re-imports skip anything already recorded, so overlapping exports never double-count.

The rules changed in April 2025

The furnished holiday lettings regime was abolished from April 2025 — short-term let income is now ordinary UK property income, with the same expense categories and the same MTD timetable as any other rental. And if you host in your own home, rent-a-room relief (up to £7,500 a year tax-free) may apply instead of expense-based accounting — Quarterwise flags this when you mark a listing as a room in your home.

Written by the Quarterwise team. Figures sourced from GOV.UK and current at July 2026. This is general information, not tax advice — for advice on your specific circumstances, speak to a qualified adviser or HMRC.