Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: who must use it, from when, and the deadlines

Who this is for: sole traders and landlords registered for Self Assessment: those who should have started on 6 April 2026, those getting ready for April 2027 or April 2028, and anyone who helps one with their tax. (GOV.UK)

Who it is not for: limited companies and partnerships. It is for sole traders and landlords: dividends from your own company do not count towards the threshold (GOV.UK), and partnerships do not need to use it yet (GOV.UK). A company’s own dates are in the company deadlines calculator.

Date	What happens	Source
6 April 2026	Making Tax Digital for Income Tax starts for qualifying income over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025	GOV.UK
7 August 2026	First quarterly update for 2026 to 2027 (6 April to 5 July)	GOV.UK
7 November 2026	Second quarterly update (6 April to 5 October)	GOV.UK
31 January 2027	The 2025 to 2026 tax return, sent as an ordinary Self Assessment return, and the tax paid	GOV.UK
7 February 2027	Third quarterly update (6 April to 5 January)	GOV.UK
6 April 2027	Starts for qualifying income over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026	GOV.UK
7 May 2027	Fourth quarterly update (the whole of 2026 to 2027)	GOV.UK
31 January 2028	The 2026 to 2027 tax return, sent through your software, and the tax paid	GOV.UK
6 April 2028	Starts for qualifying income over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027	GOV.UK

Thresholds and start dates from GOV.UK: find out if and when you need to use it; the first year’s dates from GOV.UK: before you use this guide. HMRC’s own step-by-step is Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

Who has to use it

You need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax if all three apply: you are a sole trader or a landlord registered for Self Assessment, you get income from self-employment or property or both, and your qualifying income is over the threshold for the tax year (GOV.UK).

Qualifying income is turnover, not profit. It is your total income from self-employment and property before expenses, taken from your tax return. Wages taxed through PAYE, your share of a partnership’s profit, dividends (including those from your own company), the State Pension and private pensions do not count. GOV.UK’s example: £25,000 of rent and £27,000 from self-employment make £52,000 (GOV.UK).

HMRC checks each Self Assessment return and writes to you if you are over the threshold. If no letter comes, it is still your responsibility to check. GOV.UK has a tool that says whether you need to use it, when to start and whether you may be exempt (GOV.UK).

When it starts: the three thresholds

• Over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025: from 6 April 2026. If you have not joined yet, you still can.
• Over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026: from 6 April 2027.
• Over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027: from 6 April 2028.

Those three are GOV.UK’s (GOV.UK, GOV.UK). At £20,000 or less you are automatically exempt (GOV.UK). The year before you start is an ordinary Self Assessment return: someone who started in April 2026 still sends the 2025 to 2026 return by 31 January 2027 (GOV.UK, GOV.UK). Once you are in, you can opt out if your qualifying income stays below the threshold for 3 tax years in a row, or if an amended return takes it below (GOV.UK). The rest of the year’s dates are on the UK tax year dates page.

Making Tax Digital for landlords

Landlords are in on the same terms as sole traders, and rent is added to any self-employment income to make one qualifying income (GOV.UK, GOV.UK). What is particular to property:

• Joint ownership: only your share of the income counts. A property owned equally by two siblings that brings in £50,000 gives each of them £25,000 of qualifying income (GOV.UK).
• All your UK properties are one business. They are legally treated as one UK property business, so you do not keep separate digital records for each. Your foreign properties together are one foreign property business (GOV.UK).
• Joint lets: you keep records of your share only, and you do not need to link them to the other landlord’s. You may leave a jointly let property’s expenses out of the quarterly updates and report them after the year ends, by sending the fourth update again before your tax return (GOV.UK, GOV.UK).
• Simpler categories: with UK property turnover under £90,000 you can record in less detail, but a landlord of residential property must still record whether an expense is a restricted finance cost (GOV.UK).

Making Tax Digital for sole traders

• The threshold is turnover: your income before expenses, added to any property income (GOV.UK).
• A short first year is scaled up. HMRC annualises a sole trader’s qualifying income where it can: six months of trading in the first tax year is doubled (GOV.UK).
• Under £90,000 of turnover from a self-employment, you only need to record whether each transaction is income or an expense (GOV.UK).
• A partnership share does not count. You keep no digital records for it, but it still goes on the tax return in your software (GOV.UK).

The deadlines

Each quarterly update covers the tax year so far, not just the last three months. Your software adds your digital records up into totals for each category; HMRC does not receive the receipts or invoices themselves. Update periods are standard (from 6 April) or calendar (from 1 April), and the deadline is the same either way (GOV.UK):

• 7 August: 6 April to 5 July, or 1 April to 30 June.
• 7 November: 6 April to 5 October, or 1 April to 30 September.
• 7 February: 6 April to 5 January, or 1 April to 31 December.
• 7 May: the whole tax year, 6 April to 5 April or 1 April to 31 March.
• 31 January: the tax return for the year that ended the April before, sent through your software, and the tax owed (GOV.UK, GOV.UK).

You can send an update any time from the end of its period to the deadline, or up to 10 days early if you expect no more transactions. If nothing came in or went out, you still send it (GOV.UK). If your accounting period runs 1 April to 31 March, choose calendar periods in your software before your first update: it cannot be changed afterwards (GOV.UK). The 7 November update has a page of its own.

Making Tax Digital does not change the way you pay tax or the dates payments are due (GOV.UK). The rest of the Self Assessment calendar is on the Self Assessment tax return page.

If you are late

• Quarterly updates in 2026 to 2027: HMRC will not apply penalty points for late updates in this first year. You still have to send them before you can send your tax return (GOV.UK, GOV.UK).
• After 2026 to 2027: each missed deadline earns a point, one per deadline however many businesses you have. At 4 points there is a £200 penalty, and another £200 for each deadline missed after that (GOV.UK).
• The tax return: a late return earns a point, in the first year as in every other (GOV.UK, GOV.UK).
• Points expire. Below the threshold, each point is removed 24 months after the missed deadline (GOV.UK).
• Volunteers get no penalties for late quarterly updates. A late tax return still earns a point, and 2 points bring a £200 penalty (GOV.UK).
• Paying late has new penalties as well, which grow the longer the tax stays unpaid. They do not apply to payments on account (GOV.UK).

What software you need

HMRC does not provide software (GOV.UK). You, or an agent, need commercial software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax to keep digital records of your self-employment and property income and expenses, send the quarterly updates, and add your other income and send the tax return by 31 January (GOV.UK).

• If you keep spreadsheets, you can carry on with them. Software that connects to them, sometimes called bridging software, makes the submissions (GOV.UK, GOV.UK).
• Free products exist for simple tax affairs, though they may limit, for example, the number of transactions (GOV.UK).
• HMRC’s software finder lists products that have been through its recognition process. HMRC does not recommend any of them (GOV.UK).
• Connect it to HMRC before you start keeping records, and again every 18 months (GOV.UK).
• Keep the records for at least 5 years from each year’s deadline: the 2026 to 2027 records until at least 31 January 2033 (GOV.UK).

How signing up works

1. Check whether and when you need to use it, and whether you are exempt (GOV.UK).
2. Choose your software. GOV.UK says to choose it before signing up (GOV.UK).
3. Join through HMRC’s online service with the user ID and password you got when you registered for Self Assessment. You must be registered for Self Assessment and have sent a tax return in the last 2 years. You may be asked to prove your identity with an app on your phone and your passport or driving licence (GOV.UK).
4. Have the details ready: the date your business started or your property income began, if that was in the last 2 tax years, and the tax year you will start. A sole trader also needs the business name used on invoices, the business address and the trade (GOV.UK).

You can volunteer before you have to, for the current tax year or the next (GOV.UK). From September 2026, HMRC is signing up, in stages, anyone who needs to use it for 2026 to 2027 and has not joined. If HMRC has signed you up, it contacts you; you then check the income sources it holds, get software, catch up on records from the start of the tax year and send any overdue update as soon as possible (GOV.UK).

Who is exempt

If you are exempt you do not use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, but you still report your income in a Self Assessment return as normal. These exemptions are automatic (GOV.UK):

• qualifying income of £20,000 or less;
• no National Insurance number before the start of the tax year;
• partnerships, which do not need to use it yet: HMRC will set out their timeline later;
• returns sent for a trust or a non-resident company, and by the personal representative of someone who has died;
• for 2026 to 2027, a 2024 to 2025 return that claimed averaging relief or qualifying care relief (foster and kinship carers, for example), or included the SA107 or SA109 pages;
• beyond April 2027, a 2024 to 2025 return from a minister of religion or a Lloyd’s member, or one that declared Married Couple’s Allowance or Blind Person’s Allowance received or transferred.

Being digitally excluded is an exemption you apply for: when it is not reasonable for you to use software because of your age, health or a disability, membership of a religious society whose beliefs rule out digital records, or no internet access at your home or business because of where it is, and no suitable alternative. HMRC will not accept an application whose only reason is that you filed on paper before, are unfamiliar with accountancy software, have few records, or that it will take extra time or cost (GOV.UK).

What Radar does with this

• Life setup asks: “Do you file a Self Assessment tax return?” The online deadline is 31 January. Radar reminds you two months ahead. Radar reminds you 60 days ahead.
• Put the next quarterly update on your Radar as an item that repeats every 3 months on the 7th: marked done, it moves on to the next one, with reminders a week ahead, the day before and on the day. Give it the hours the bookkeeping takes and, with your calendar connected, Radar shows whether there is time free for them before the 7th, beside the work and home dates landing in the same week.

Radar reads the calendars, task lists and CRM you connect, and the dates you give it. It writes back only when you press a button, and it never sends anything by itself.

Also free: Radar Lite, the habit tracker on its own, for you and anyone 13 or over in the family.

Questions

When does Making Tax Digital for Income Tax start?

It started on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords whose qualifying income was over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025. It starts on 6 April 2027 for those over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026, and on 6 April 2028 for those over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027. (GOV.UK)

Is the threshold profit or turnover?

Turnover: your total income from self-employment and property before expenses. Wages, a partnership share, dividends and pensions do not count. A landlord who owns a property jointly counts their share of its income. (GOV.UK)

Does Making Tax Digital apply to landlords?

Yes. Landlords registered for Self Assessment are in on the same thresholds as sole traders, with property and self-employment income added together. All your UK properties count as one UK property business, and for a joint let you keep records of your share only. (GOV.UK, GOV.UK)

What are the Making Tax Digital deadlines?

Quarterly updates by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, and the tax return by 31 January after the tax year ends. For 2026 to 2027, HMRC will not give penalty points for late quarterly updates, but a late tax return still earns one. (GOV.UK, GOV.UK)

How does signing up for Making Tax Digital work?

You must be registered for Self Assessment and have sent a tax return in the last 2 years. Choose your software first, then use HMRC’s online service with the user ID and password from your Self Assessment registration. From September 2026, HMRC is signing up people who needed to start in April 2026 and had not. (GOV.UK, GOV.UK)

More guides

• Company deadlines calculator
• Late payment interest calculator
• UK tax year dates
• Self Assessment tax return
• Self Assessment dates to 31 January 2027
• Making Tax Digital: the 7 November update
• P45 and P60
• How to write an invoice

Every free tool and guide →

Sources

• Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, read 16 Oct 2026
• Work out your qualifying income for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, read 16 Oct 2026
• Find out if you can get an exemption from Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, read 16 Oct 2026
• Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: signing up, read 16 Oct 2026
• Check what to do if HMRC has signed you up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, read 16 Oct 2026
• Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, read 16 Oct 2026
• Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: before you use this guide, read 16 Oct 2026
• Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: send quarterly updates, read 16 Oct 2026
• Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: create digital records, read 16 Oct 2026
• Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: submit your tax return, read 16 Oct 2026
• Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: get your software ready, read 16 Oct 2026
• Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: if your circumstances change, read 16 Oct 2026
• Penalties for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, read 16 Oct 2026
• Choose the right software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, read 16 Oct 2026

Written by Joel Lister, founder of Radar · first published 16 Oct 2026. Radar is made by Neos Technologies Ltd.