In short
- If your self-employment and property income together are over £50,000, MTD starts in April 2026; over £30,000 in April 2027; over £20,000 in April 2028.
- You keep digital records and send a short update to HMRC every quarter, then a final declaration after the tax year.
- Your accountant can send the updates for you from the records you keep.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) changes how sole traders and landlords report to HMRC. Instead of one Self Assessment return a year built from a year of paperwork, you keep your records digitally and send a summary every three months. It sounds like four times the work. Done steadily, it’s less: the year-end rush disappears because the year was never left to pile up.
Who has to join, and when
It depends on your qualifying income: your gross income from self-employment and from property, added together, before expenses. HMRC looks at the tax return from two years earlier to decide.
| Qualifying income | MTD starts | Based on your return for |
|---|---|---|
| Over £50,000 | 6 April 2026 | 2024 to 2025 |
| Over £30,000 | 6 April 2027 | 2025 to 2026 |
| Over £20,000 | 6 April 2028 | 2026 to 2027 |
Turnover, not profit. Gross means turnover, not profit. A designer who invoices £34,000 a year and lets a flat for £9,600 has qualifying income of £43,600, even if the profit is far lower, so they join in April 2027.
What you do each quarter
You keep a digital record of every sale and every cost, in HMRC’s categories. Every quarter, totals for each category go to HMRC through MTD-compatible software. The standard quarters follow the tax year:
| Quarter | Covers | Update due by |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 April to 5 July | 7 August |
| 2 | 6 July to 5 October | 7 November |
| 3 | 6 October to 5 January | 7 February |
| 4 | 6 January to 5 April | 7 May |
You can choose calendar quarters instead (1 April to 30 June, and so on), which many people find easier to remember. Ask your accountant which you use.
After the year ends you, or your accountant, send a final declaration by 31 January. That’s where allowances, other income and adjustments go in, and where your tax bill is worked out. The quarterly updates themselves don’t create a bill.
A quarterly update is a summary of records you already keep. If the records are there, the update takes minutes.
Habits that make it easy
- Record income and costs as they happen, or at least once a week. A week of receipts is ten minutes; a quarter of them is an afternoon.
- Keep business and personal spending apart, ideally in a separate bank account.
- Attach a photo or PDF of each receipt or bill to the record, so you and your accountant can check it later.
- Split costs you use partly for yourself, like a phone or a car, by the share that’s for business.
- If you’re a landlord too, keep each property’s rent and costs apart from your trade.
What to do this month
Add up last tax year’s turnover and property income to see which wave you’re in. Then pick the day of the month you’ll keep your books up to date, and put it in your calendar. If your first quarter starts next April, a few months of practice before then makes it routine.
Rates, thresholds and dates in this guide are as of 14 October 2026. They’re illustrative: rules change, so check with your accountant before a big decision. It’s general information, not tax or legal advice.
Rates shown are illustrative and are checked against gov.uk before launch.