News
Making Tax Digital (MTD) 2026: What you need to know
01 Apr 2026
From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with gross income over £50,000 must submit quarterly From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with gross income over £50,000 must submit quarterly updates to HMRC under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for IT). If you have received a letter from HMRC about this recently, here is a straightforward explanation of what it actually involves.
What Making Tax Digital for Income Tax actually involves
The most common question we hear is whether this means doing a tax return four times a year. It does not, but it does mean four quarterly submissions to HMRC, and that is a meaningful change to the way you currently manage your tax obligations.
Right now, most sole traders and landlords file one Self Assessment return once a year. Under MTD, that annual process is replaced by a quarterly reporting cycle throughout the year, followed by a Final Declaration in January. The way you are currently doing things is changing, and for most people that means more frequent contact with their records, more regular deadlines to hit, and the right software in place to make it all work.
The quarterly submissions themselves are summaries, income and expenditure for that three-month period, sent through HMRC-compatible software. They are not full tax calculations, and your final tax position is still confirmed once a year through the Final Declaration by 31 January. But the work that feeds into that declaration now happens in stages throughout the year, not in one go at filing time.
How we can help
MTD requires you to keep digital records of your income and expenditure in compatible software and submit quarterly updates on time. That is a straightforward requirement on paper, but getting set up correctly from the start – with the right software, the right processes, and everything properly connected to HMRC – takes time and care to do properly.
We can manage the whole process for you. That means handling your quarterly submissions throughout the year and guiding you through what you need to provide at each stage, what records to keep, how to send information to us, and when. You get the reassurance that your obligations are being met accurately and on time, without it falling to you to navigate the admin.
To get started, you will need a personal Government Gateway account with the Making Tax Digital for Income Tax option enabled. Once that is in place, we can connect a bank feed directly to your records, which pulls much of the information from your bank automatically and significantly reduces the manual work involved.
If you are not sure whether MTD applies to you, or you would simply like to understand what working with us on this would look like in practice, we are happy to have that conversation. We can check your position based on your 2024/25 figures and talk through what level of support makes sense for your circumstances, whether that is full management of your quarterly submissions, help getting set up, or simply some guidance on where to start.
Get in touch with your usual advisor or contact us using the contact form below.
No penalties in year one
HMRC has confirmed that for 2026/27, the first year of MTD, there will be no penalty points issued for late quarterly updates. That soft landing does not extend to late payment or late final declarations, but it does mean there is some tolerance built in while people get to grips with the new process.
Key dates
| Date | What happens |
| 6 April 2026 | MTD begins for sole traders and landlords with gross income over £50,000 |
| 7 August 2026 | First quarterly update due (covering 6 April – 5 July 2026) |
| 7 November 2026 | Second quarterly update due |
| 31 January 2027 | Final declaration due (replacing Self Assessment for 2025/26) |
| 7 February 2027 | Third quarterly update due |
| 7 May 2027 | Fourth quarterly update due |
| 6 April 2027 | MTD extends to those with gross income over £30,000 |
| 6 April 2028 | MTD extends to those with gross income over £20,000 |
This article is for general information purposes only and reflects the rules as understood at the date of publication (April 2026). Individual circumstances vary, please speak with your advisor before taking action.
