Published22 April 2024

Updated:12 March 2026

Summary

Guidance for sole traders, landlords, and agents to sign up and use HMRC’s new way to report self-employment and property income and expenses.

Introduction

About Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, who needs to use it and by when, and what to expect after you sign up.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is a new way for sole traders and landlords to report income and expenses to HMRC.

From 6 April 2026, some sole traders and landlords must use it, based on their total annual income from self-employment and property.

You, or your agent if you have one, will need to use software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax to:

create, store and correct digital records of your self-employment and property income and expenses
send your quarterly updates to HMRC
submit your tax return by 31 January the following year

Who will need to do it

Sole traders and landlords will need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, unless they are exempt, if the following apply. They:

are registered for Self Assessment
get income from self-employment or property, or both
have qualifying income of more than £20,000

Qualifying income is the total gross income (before deducting expenses or taxes) from self-employment and property in a tax year.

All other sources of income reported through Self Assessment do not count towards your qualifying income, such as income from:

employment (PAYE)
your share of profit from a partnership as an individual partner
dividends (including those from your own company)
a State Pension
private pensions

When you will need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

When you need to start using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax depends on your qualifying income for a tax year. If your qualifying income is over:

£50,000 for the 2024 to 2025 tax year, you will need to use it from 6 April 2026  
£30,000 for the 2025 to 2026 tax year, you will need to use it from 6 April 2027
£20,000 for the 2026 to 2027 tax year, the government has set out plans to introduce legislation to lower the qualifying income threshold

Use our tool to find out if and when you or your client needs to sign up.

If you want to sign up early

Sole traders, landlords, and their agents can sign up early to test the service before they’re required to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

Signing up early also means you can get dedicated support from HMRC.

HMRC will not issue penalties for missing quarterly update deadlines during the testing phase. Read more on new penalties and when they apply.

What to do next

You can use this guidance to find out more information about:

what to expect after you sign up
the different steps you will need to take during the tax year
what to do if your circumstances change

To check whether you can sign up early and use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, read important steps for signing up. For those already signed up, check you’ve completed all steps you need to continue using the service if you are:

Signing up

Check if you or your client can sign up early, how to choose the right software and authorise a tax agent and software.

Before signing up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, you’ll need to choose software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

If you have an agent, your agent will also need to set up the right authorisations so they can act on your behalf.

Agents can sign up their clients once they have their permission and authorisation using their agent services account. This is different to the HMRC online services for agents account.

If you have an agent

Sole traders and landlords can use an agent (like a bookkeeper or accountant) to help with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

Once authorised, an agent can help with all or certain tasks, including:

signing up their client’s business
using software to create and store digital records for their clients
sending quarterly updates
submitting a tax return to HMRC after the tax year end

For sole traders and landlords

If you’ve already authorised your agent for Self Assessment, you do not need to authorise them again for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

You should:

discuss Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and software options with your agent
agree who will manage each part of the process and certain tasks
make sure your agent has the right details about your businesses or property, including about income sources

Choosing more than one agent

As part of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, you can choose to have one or more tax agents to help you. This can either be a main or supporting agent. Each type of agent can view different parts of a client’s records and do different tasks.

For example, your bookkeeper might complete and send quarterly updates to HMRC. In this example, they are a supporting agent. You may have an accountant to finalise your overall tax position and submit your final tax return. In this example, they are a main agent.

For agents

To act on behalf of your clients, you’ll need to:

create an agent services account, if you do not already have one
have authorisation from your client
add any existing Self Assessment authorisations to your agent services account

Find out more about:

Once authorised as a main agent, you can submit tax returns on your client’s behalf. Your client should check the information in their tax return is correct before submission.

Choose compatible software

You or your agent will need software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax to sign up. You can get software that either:

creates digital records
connects to your existing records (bridging software)

Check with the software provider that their product meets your specific needs. The software product or products that you choose will need to:

support your income sources covered by Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (self-employment, UK property, foreign property)
let you send your quarterly updates and submit your tax return to HMRC
work with your accounting period

If you want to sign up for the 2025 to 2026 tax year, check with your provider that the software will work with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax during this time.

Find software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

Sign up for the service

Once you have chosen software, you can now:

Authorise your software

After you have signed up, you will need to authorise your compatible software so it is connected to HMRC for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

How to authorise your software as a sole trader or landlord

Select the option to connect with HMRC in your compatible software.
Enter the user ID and password you used when you signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
Pass the identity check by entering personal information and details from your identity documents (if you need to).
Give permission for your software to connect with HMRC.

You’ll need to repeat these steps every 18 months, but you will not need to pass the identity check again. Your software should remind you when it’s time to reconnect.

How to authorise your software as an agent

Select the option to connect to HMRC in the compatible software.
Enter your firm’s agent services account user ID and password.
Pass the identity check by entering personal information and details from identity documents.
Give permission for your firm’s software to connect with HMRC.

Personal information from you or an employee at the firm is required for fraud prevention. You can find out how we store and process personal information in the Government Gateway Privacy Notice and HMRC Privacy Notice.

You’ll need to repeat these steps every 18 months. Your software should remind you when it’s time to reconnect.

What to do next

Find out how to manage your new online tax account after you sign up.

After you sign up

How to access your new Making Tax Digital for Income Tax service and dedicated support.

After signing up, you or your client will use software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax to create digital records and send quarterly updates.

You’ll also get access to a dedicated support team in HMRC and you can use your HMRC online account to review and update business details.

Before you continue, check you’ve completed all the steps for signing up, including authorising your chosen software.Hide all sections

Access your new tax service online

Once you are signed up, you’ll be able to access your new Making Tax Digital for Income Tax service through your existing HMRC online account.

For sole traders and landlords

Use your Government Gateway user ID and password to sign in to HMRC online services — this is the user ID you use for Self Assessment.

Then select Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

If you cannot access Making Tax Digital for Income Tax as a service, you can add it manually:

Sign in to your business tax account.
Select Add a tax to your account to get online access to a tax, duty or scheme.
Select Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
Answer the security questions.

For agents

Once authorised by your client, you can access their Making Tax Digital for Income Tax details from your agent services account.

What you can do in your online account

Your HMRC online account also gives you access to information about your Making Tax Digital for Income Tax service. You can use it to:

view Self Assessment tax calculations
view quarterly update periods
view quarterly update and Self Assessment return due dates
check what you owe
view your Self Assessment and property business details
add a new business
tell us when an income source stops (ceases)
make a payment
claim Self Assessment refunds
adjust a payment on account
view the status of your Self Assessment refund request
opt out of quarterly updates (all voluntary Making Tax Digital for Income Tax customers can do this)

For other changes to business details, contact our customer support team.

What you can do in the future

You’ll be able to use the service to:

set up regular payments (except for agents who cannot setup a client’s direct debit)
update business details
print Self Assessment tax calculations
view and appeal a penalty

If you’re an agent, you’ll also be able to submit a Self Assessment return for clients who are not using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

What to do next

You or your client will now need to start creating digital records of income and expenses to send quarterly updates.

Create digital records

How to create and store digital records of your self-employment and property income and expenses for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. 

A digital record is a record of your income or expense that is created and stored using software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

You or your agent need to create and store digital records of your self-employment and property income and expenses.

You must also continue keeping records like you normally do for Self Assessment. For example, you still need to keep original records or supporting documents (or copies of them) that you have used to prepare your tax return.

Before creating your digital records, you should check that you have followed all the steps in signing up, including authorising your software.Hide all sections

Using software for digital record keeping

You need to get software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

The software you choose needs to either:

create digital records and make submissions to HMRC
connect to your own record-keeping software (such as a spreadsheet) and make submissions to HMRC — this is also known as ‘bridging software’

You can choose to use either:

a single software product that does everything and meets all your needs
more than one software product, that when used together will meet all your needs

If you use more than one product, you’ll need to make sure they can work together to meet all your Making Tax Digital for Income Tax requirements, including digitally linking your records between the products.

If you have an agent, you should discuss your software options with them as they may already be using software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

If you use a single software product

Your software will allow you create your digital records, send HMRC your quarterly updates and submit your tax return.

You do not need to digitally link your software to other products if you use a single software product to do everything.

If you use more than one software product

You need to digitally link your record-keeping software and software that uses your records to make submissions to HMRC.

You should do this when you set up the compatible software or before you:

send your quarterly updates to HMRC
submit your tax return

Once you’ve created a digital record and it has been sent to HMRC in a quarterly update, you must not manually move the record within your record-keeping software or to other software.

For example, you must not:

copy information by writing it out in another cell or in other software
use ‘cut and paste’ or ‘copy and paste’ to move records

How to digitally link your records in your software

You can digitally link your records in different ways, including:

using linked cells in spreadsheets — for example, if you have a formula in one sheet that mirrors the source’s value in another cell and the cells are linked
emailing a spreadsheet containing digital records, so the information can be imported into another software product
transferring a set of digital records onto a portable device (for example, a pen drive, memory stick or flash drive) and physically giving this to someone who imports the data into their software
XML, CSV importing and exporting, and downloading and uploading files
using an automated data transfer
using an application programming interface (API) transfer

You do not need to digitally link:

records of income that are not self-employment or property income and expenses — for example, income from dividends or savings
software that’s not used to create digital records of self-employment and property income and expenses — for example, software that takes bookings or a till system that records sales receipts
software that’s only used to submit your tax return with software used to keep digital records and send quarterly updates — the first type of software gets the data directly from HMRC

If you are a landlord that jointly lets a property, you do not need to link your digital records to the records of the other landlord.

Records you need to keep digitally

You need to create and store digital records of your self-employment and property income and expenses, such as:

self-employment income — including sales, takings and fees
self-employment expenses — including the cost of stock, travel costs, office costs and financial costs
property income — including rent, premiums for the grant of a lease, reverse premiums and inducements
property expenses — including rent, costs of repairs, maintenance or other services

When you create records of your income or expenses, you will need to record the:

amount
date when the income was received or expenses incurred
category — the type of category you will use depends on the type of business you have

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax uses the same categories of income and expenses as Self Assessment.

If you are a sole trader

If you have more than one sole trader business, for each source of self-employment income you have you will need to:

create separate digital records
send separate quarterly updates

For example, if you are an electrician as well as a driving instructor, you should create one set of digital records for each of your businesses and send separate quarterly updates for each.

Using the trading income allowance

You will need to create digital records of your self-employment income and expenses and include them in your quarterly updates if you claimed the trading income allowance on your last Self Assessment tax return.

At the end of the tax year, you can claim the allowance when you submit your tax return using your compatible software.

For example, in your tax return for the 2024 to 2025 tax year, you used the trading income allowance and you declared:

property income of £60,000
self-employment income of £1,900 from a side hustle

In the 2026 to 2027 tax year, you’ll need to keep digital records of both the property and the self-employment income because your self-employment income was above the trading allowance threshold.

You do not need to keep digital records of self-employment income for the purposes of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, if both of the following apply:

the income was below the trading income allowance threshold
you did not declare the income on your previous tax return

If you are a landlord or get property income

You should create separate digital records for your personal UK and foreign property businesses. Your:

UK properties are treated as one ‘UK property business’
non-UK properties are treated as one ‘foreign property business’

Your share of any jointly let properties will form part of either your UK or foreign property business.

Using the Rent-a-Room Scheme

You will need to create digital records of your UK property income and expenses covered by the scheme and include it in your quarterly updates if either you:

used the Rent-a-Room Scheme for your home and received income from another UK property on your last Self Assessment tax return
did not receive any other UK property income but the gross income from your UK property was more than the Rent-a-Room Scheme threshold on your last Self Assessment tax return

For example, in your tax return for the 2024 to 2025 tax year you declared UK property income of £55,000. You made use of the Rent-a-Room allowance, but were not required to declare the income, as it was below the Rent-a-Room threshold.

In the 2026 to 2027 tax year, you’ll need to create digital records for all your property income, including your Rent-a-Room income.

Using the property income allowance

You will need to create digital records of your UK property income and expenses and include them in your quarterly updates if you claimed the property income allowance on your last Self Assessment tax return.

At the end of the tax year, you can claim the allowance when you submit your tax return using your compatible software.

For example, in your tax return for the 2024 to 2025 tax year you used the property income allowance and declared:

self-employment income of £64,000
property income of £1,800

In the 2026 to 2027 tax year, you’ll need to keep digital records of both the property and the self-employment income because your property income was above the property allowance threshold.

You do not need to keep digital records of property income for the purposes of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, if both of the following apply:

the income was below the property income allowance threshold
you did not need to declare the income on your previous tax return

If your software connects to your bank account

If you use software that connects to your bank account to help you to create digital records, you may need to add additional detail, such as expenditure categories.

Some transactions may not appear in full in your bank feed and will need to be created separately as a digital record in your software.

You should check your digital records are accurate before sending your quarterly update to HMRC.

Records you can choose to keep digitally

There are some records you do not need to keep digitally but can choose to do so. This can help you maintain a more complete view of your tax affairs, as every time you send a quarterly update you’ll be able to see an estimated tax bill in your software.

You do not need to create digital records for all other sources of income reported through Self Assessment, such as income from:

employment (PAYE)
your share of profit from a partnership as an individual partner
dividends (including those from your own company)
a State Pension
private pensions

For example, you might be a sole trader that also receives a share of profit from a partnership as an individual partner. You will need to create digital records for your sole trader business but not for your share of profit from the partnership.

If your compatible software has the option, you can choose to report these income sources during the tax year, through your software.

If you get new self-employment and property income

You can voluntarily create digital records for your new self-employment or property income if you’re already using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. However, you do not need to create them until after you submit a tax return using compatible software which includes income or expenses from that business for the first time.

For example, you may start a new business in May 2027. Your first tax return that will include the income from this business will be the tax return for the 2027 to 2028 tax year, which you would need to submit using your compatible software by 31 January 2029. In this instance, you’ll need to start creating digital records for the new business from 6 April 2029, but you can choose to create them earlier.

Disallowable expenses

These are expenses that are not wholly for business use, so a portion of them cannot be claimed on your tax return.

If you currently keep a record of the disallowable portion of your expenses, then you should continue to do this by creating digital records of these amounts in your software.

For example, you have a mobile phone bill which totals £200. The bill is made up of:

£125 for business calls
£75 for personal calls (which is the disallowable portion of the expense)

If you choose to create a record of the disallowable portion, you will create a digital record of:

the full £200 expense
the £75 disallowable portion

Simplified expenses

If you’re sure you’ll use a simplified expenses scheme, you do not need to create digital records of your actual expenses.

If you’re not sure, you should create digital records of all expenses.

If you use simplified expenses, you will need to make an adjustment for this before you finalise your Income Tax position.

Find out more about simplified expenses.

Transactions that are part capital and part revenue

If you have a transaction which is part capital and part revenue, you can either:

record the full value of a transaction (including capital elements) — you should then make an adjustment before submitting your tax return
create a digital record of just the revenue amount

For example, if you make a mortgage payment, you will need to create a digital record of either the interest or the full amount. If you create a record of the full amount, you will need to make an adjustment before you finalise your Income Tax position.

Specific record-keeping requirements

You can choose to create and categorise your digital records in a particular way if either:

you jointly let property with another landlord
your turnover is below the VAT threshold
you are a retailer

If you are a landlord that jointly lets properties

You only need to create digital records that relate to your share of income and expenses from your jointly let properties.

To simplify your record keeping, you can choose to:

create less detailed digital records for the income and expenses from your jointly let properties
not include expenses which relate to jointly let properties in your quarterly updates — you will need to include this information when you finalise your Income Tax position after the end of the tax year and before you submit your tax return

For jointly let properties only, creating less detailed digital records means:

creating a single digital record for each category of property income that you receive in an update period
creating a single digital record for each category of property expense that you incur in a tax year

For example, a landlord with a jointly let property, could either:

create 3 digital records, showing £1,000 of rent they received each month
just create one digital record for the quarter, showing £3,000 of rent received

Simpler categorisation if your turnover is below the VAT threshold

You can choose to categorise your digital records in less detail for a tax year, if you have either of the following:

total UK property turnover of less than £90,000 (this also applies if you are a landlord that jointly lets a property)
turnover from a source of self-employment that is less than £90,000

If you have more than one income source, you can only use simpler categorisation for both income sources if your turnover is below the VAT threshold for each income source.

If you’re a sole trader, you only need to record whether a transaction is income or an expense.

If you’re a landlord and receive rental income from residential property, you need to categorise your expenses in more detail even if your turnover is below the threshold. You must:

Record if a transaction is an income or an expense.
If it is an expense, record whether the expense is for a restricted finance cost.

If your turnover later reaches the VAT threshold

If your turnover reaches £90,000, you will need to categorise all digital records for that income source in full before you can send your quarterly update, including those:

from the beginning of the current tax year
in the following tax year

If you do not categorise your records for that income source in full, you’ll not be able to send quarterly updates or submit your tax return.

If you’re unsure if your turnover will reach £90,000, you should categorise your digital records in full detail.

If you’re a retailer

You can choose to create a digital record of your daily gross takings, instead of individual sales that you make.

What to do at the start of the tax year

There are some decisions you should think about at the beginning of the tax year, even though you might currently make them after the tax year has ended.

Consider your accounting period

Your software will default to an accounting period that aligns with the tax year (6 April to 5 April).

If you have an accounting period that ends on the 31 March each year, you should make sure you have chosen calendar update periods in your software before you send your first quarterly update. This will make your record keeping simpler.

You cannot change to calendar update periods partway through a tax year.

Consider which accounting method to use

You may want to consider which accounting method you’ll use for your record keeping. This will either be:

If you’re not sure, you can create digital records during the tax year and then confirm your accounting method when you submit your tax return.

Choose how to categorise your records

You may want to use simpler categorisation for your digital records if you are eligible.

Choose whether to use simplifications for your jointly let properties

You may want to create less detailed records or not include expenses in your quarterly updates. These simplifications can only be used for properties that you jointly let with another landlord.

When to create digital records

You will need to create digital records for a quarterly period before either:

the quarterly update deadline for that period
sending that quarterly update, if this is before the deadline

For example, you will need to create a digital record of income you receive on 30 April before (all of the following):

you send your first quarterly update
7 August — the deadline for that update

You should create digital records as close to the date of the transaction as possible. This will help you have a more up to date view of your business affairs.

During the testing phase, if you sign up partway through the tax year, you do not need to catch up with your digital record keeping straight away, as late submission penalties for quarterly updates do not apply. You can read more about catching up in If your circumstances change.

If you are a landlord that jointly lets properties

If you have chosen not to include expenses which relate to jointly let properties in your quarterly updates, then you do not need to create digital records for those expenses every quarter.

You will need to create digital records for these expenses before you finalise your Income Tax position at the end of the tax year. You will then need to resend your fourth quarterly update to include these records before you submit your tax return.

If you only get told about your net income

If you only get told what your income is after expenses, such as letting agent fees, are deducted (also known as net income) you need to do the following.

Ask what the full amount of income was before expenses were deducted.
Create a digital record for the full amount of income.
Create a digital record for your expenses.

If someone else tells you about your self-employment or property income

If a trust or partnership tells you about your personal self-employment or property income after the quarterly update deadline, you can either:

estimate your income or expense and then confirm it later
record the income or expense once you are notified of it

This includes disguised investment management fees or income based carried interest.

You do not need to create digital records for your share of profit from a partnership as an individual partner.

If you estimate your income or expense

You should:

Create a digital record for the transaction.
Update the digital record when the income or expense is confirmed.

It will then be included in your next quarterly update.

If you have already sent your fourth quarterly update, you will need to resend the update to include the confirmed income or expense.

If you only record the income or expense once it’s confirmed

You should:

Send quarterly updates during the tax year that confirm you received no income and incurred no expenses for that income source.
Create a digital record for the income or expense when you receive the information.

It will then be included in your next quarterly update.

If you have already sent your fourth quarterly update, you will need to resend the update to include the confirmed income or expense.

You will need to have finalised your digital records before you submit your tax return.

Correcting your digital records

You may need to correct a digital record, if you:

made a mistake when creating a digital record
forgot to record income you received, or expenses you incurred

To correct your records, you may need to change, delete or create a digital record. If you make the correction during the tax year, it will be included when you send your next quarterly update.

If you have an agent that deals with your record keeping, they can do this on your behalf.

If you use software that creates digital records, you can make the correction in your software.

If you create digital records in separate record-keeping software (for example, a spreadsheet), you should make the correction there and then digitally link your records to your bridging software.

If you have already sent your fourth quarterly update, you can choose to make the correction by either:

correcting the digital record and resending your fourth quarterly update (this may be easier if you are a sole trader or landlord that keeps their own digital records)
adjusting the category total in your software and also reflecting it in your digital records (if you have an agent, they may make the correction in this way and ask you to update your records)

When to correct digital records

If you find an error or missing information in your digital records, you should correct it as soon as possible.

After making the correction, it will be included when you send your next quarterly update.

If you have already sent your fourth quarterly update, you will need to make any corrections before you finalise your Income Tax position.

How long you will need to store digital records

You will need to keep your digital records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline for a tax year. This is the same amount of time you need to keep records for Self Assessment.

If you decide to change your software

What to do next

When you have chosen how you will create and store your digital records, you should check when you need to send updates to HMRC.

Send quarterly updates

How and when to send quarterly updates and what’s included in them.

Every 3 months, your compatible software will add together your digital records for each business that you have, to create totals for each income and expense category. These are known as quarterly updates.

You do not need to make any accounting or tax adjustments before sending a quarterly update to HMRC.

You need to send your quarterly updates for each self-employment and property income source to us every 3 months. The update periods and deadlines are set out in this guidance and your software will tell you when and how to send updates.

The periods that your quarterly updates cover will make it easier for you to correct errors throughout the tax year. This will mean you do not need to resend the original quarterly update after making a correction.Hide all sections

What will be sent in your quarterly updates

The quarterly updates you send to HMRC will include the digital records:

for your self-employment and property income and expenses from the previous 3 months
you have already created since the beginning of that tax year and any corrections you’ve made to them

For example, your third quarterly update (due on 7 February) will send HMRC your records for your self-employment and property income and expenses from:

6 October to 5 January
6 April to 5 October that you have already sent to us, and any corrections you have made to them

HMRC will:

receive the totals for each relevant income and expense category based on your digital records for that period
not receive details of individual digital records

If you have not received any income or incurred any expenses during the last update period, you still need to send your quarterly update to tell us.

After sending an update, you’ll be able to see an estimate of your tax bill for your self-employment and property income in your software or in your HMRC online services account.

If you have chosen to keep digital records of other income sources in your software, you may be able to report them during the tax year, but they will not be included in your quarterly updates. If you cannot report them during the tax year or choose not to, you will need to declare them before you finalise your Income Tax position and submit your tax return.

You can read more about the categories of information that you should send to HMRC in a quarterly update in the Update notice for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

If you’re a landlord that jointly lets properties

If you have jointly let properties, in your quarterly updates you can choose to include either:

all property income and expenses for those properties
only your property income without expenses for those properties

If you’ve chosen not to include your expenses for those properties, you must report them at the end of the tax year before you finalise your Income Tax position and submit your tax return.

In your quarterly updates, you will still need to include:

your property income for those jointly let properties
any property income and expenses relating to properties that you solely own

Check what update periods you can use

There are 2 types of update periods for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax:

standard update periods — these align to the tax year (6 April to 5 April)
calendar update periods — these end on the last day of the month

If your accounting period aligns with the tax year (6 April to 5 April), you should use standard update periods.

If your accounting period does not align with the tax year (for example, 1 April to 31 March), you should use calendar update periods. This will make your record keeping simpler.

If you have an agent, you should talk to them if you’re unsure about what your accounting period is.

Using standard update periods

The standard update periods are based on the tax year.

Once each update period has ended, you need to send your update within one month.

The following table sets out the update periods and deadlines that apply.

Update period	Update deadline
6 April to 5 July	7 August
6 April to 5 October	7 November
6 April to 5 January	7 February
6 April to 5 April	7 May

If you’re currently volunteering to test Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, the deadlines in your HMRC online services account will show as the fifth of the month. This will change ahead of 6 April 2026.

Using calendar update periods

If your software has the functionality, you can choose to send quarterly updates that end on the last day of month. This will make your record keeping simpler if your accounting period ends on 31 March.

You’ll need to meet the same deadlines as standard update periods.

The following table sets out the update periods and deadlines that apply.

Update period	Update deadline
1 April to 30 June	7 August
1 April to 30 September	7 November
1 April to 31 December	7 February
1 April to 31 March	7 May

What you need to do in your software

If you want to use calendar update periods, you need to select calendar update periods in your software before your first update is made for the tax year.

Calendar update periods will continue to apply unless you decide to change back to standard update periods.

If you want to return to standard update periods, you need to select standard update periods in your software before the first update is made for the tax year. After you have sent an update, you will not be able to return to standard update periods until the next tax year.

If you miss a deadline for sending an update

If you do not send your quarterly update by the relevant deadline, you may get a late submission penalty. These penalties do not apply when you’re volunteering or testing Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. They will apply when you’re required to use it.

If you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026, we will not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates for the first 12 months. Penalty points will still apply for late tax returns.

You will still need to send your quarterly updates before you are able to submit your tax return.

If you’re volunteering, you can sign up partway through the tax year and will not get penalty points or penalties for sending quarterly updates after the deadlines. You can read more about catching up if your circumstances change.

Sending updates more often

You can choose to send updates more often.

For example, if you want to understand how a significant business receipt or expense affects your estimated tax bill. Most compatible software will allow you to send an update on any day.

If you choose to send updates more often, they need to cover the full update period. For example, instead of sending one update covering 6 April to 5 July, you could choose to send 3 monthly updates covering:

6 April to 5 May
6 April to 5 June
6 April to 5 July

If you do not expect to have any further transactions to record, you can send an update up to 10 days before the end of the update period. For example, you may be going on holiday and know that you will not be working for the rest of the period and will receive no further income.

What to do next

After you have sent your final quarterly update for the tax year, you should check if you need to make any adjustments to your self-employment and property income.

Adjust your self-employment and property income

How to make adjustments after you have sent your final quarterly update.

Throughout the year, you should have been correcting your digital records to make sure they are accurate.

After you have sent your fourth quarterly update, your software will show your self-employment and property income and expenses for the whole of the tax year, for each business that you have.

You may then need to adjust the data you have sent, before you finalise your Income Tax position and submit your tax return. This could include:

making tax adjustments, such as removing disallowable expenses
making accounting adjustments, such as for prepayments or accruals
adjusting your income and expenses, if you use an accounting period that is not aligned to the tax year (for example, 1 April to 31 March)
claiming reliefs or allowances, such as capital allowances, Rent a Room relief or using the trading or property income allowance

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Making adjustments

You will make most adjustments by changing the annual total for an expense category. The category total might represent a single digital record or many. This means you do not need to adjust each relevant individual transaction.

Tax adjustments

You will make tax adjustments by adjusting the annual totals of your expenses.

For example, if you have one phone for business and personal use, you will need to reduce the category total for phone, fax, stationery and other office costs, so that it only reflects the amount you’ve used for your business.

Accounting adjustments

If you use traditional accounting, your software should allow you to adjust the annual totals from your quarterly updates to address accounting adjustments, such as for prepayments or accruals.

Example of an adjustment for a prepayment

You may pay £1,200 in January for a 12-month insurance policy. Instead of recording the full cost in January, you may choose to spread this expense over 12 months, at £100 per month. This would mean one quarter of the expense falls into the first tax year, and three quarters into the next.

To do this, you would reduce the category total for rent, rates, power and insurance costs for the first tax year and increase it for the next, to reflect what is paid in each tax year.

Example of an adjustment for an accrual

You have received services from a consultant in March 2025 but have not been invoiced. To reflect the costs you have incurred, you may want to record an accrual in that tax year (2024 to 2025). This means your expenses will be matched to the same period.

If your accounting period runs from 1 April to 31 March

You need to make an adjustment at the end of the first tax year where you have chosen to use calendar update periods. This is so your income and expenses from 1 April to 5 April from before the beginning of that tax year are included in your tax return.

For example, if you sign up to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax for the 2025 to 2026 tax year, you’ll need to adjust your totals to include your income and expenses from 1 April 2025 to 5 April 2025. To do this, you should adjust the totals for relevant income and expense categories to cover this period in your compatible software.

You will not need to do this for future tax years if you continue using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

Find out more about late accounting date rules in the HMRC Business Income Manual.

Claiming reliefs or allowances

You may be able to claim reliefs or allowances that will reduce your Income Tax liability.

Capital allowances

Capital allowances are a type of tax relief for businesses. They let you deduct some or all of the value of an item from your profits before you pay tax.

You will need to use your software to record your capital allowance claim before you submit your tax return. Your software may be able to record your claim during the tax year, but HMRC will not process your claim until you have submitted your tax return.

Rent a room relief

The Rent a Room Scheme lets you earn up to a threshold of £7,500 per year tax-free from letting out furnished accommodation in your home. This is halved if you share the income with your partner or someone else.

You can claim rent a room relief either:

during the tax year through your quarterly updates
after the end of the tax year through your final quarterly update

If you decide at the end of the tax year that you would like to claim your expenses instead of the relief, you will need to make this adjustment in your final quarterly update before submitting your tax return.

Trading or property income allowances

During the tax year you will have created digital records of all your property and self-employment income and expenses.

If you want to claim tax-free allowances on your property and trading income, you will need to use your compatible software to claim the allowance after the end of the tax year. You will need to claim the allowance before you submit your tax return.

What to do next

You should then finalise your Income Tax position and submit your tax return.

Submit your tax return

How to complete and submit your tax return using software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

Once you have made all the adjustments to your self-employment and property income and expenses, you will need to use your software to:

complete your tax return
submit your tax return

You must submit your tax return by 31 January following the end of the relevant tax year, but you can submit it earlier than this. For example, you can submit your tax return for the 2026 to 2027 tax year any time after 6 April 2027, but you must submit it by 31 January 2028.

If you miss the deadline for submitting your tax return, then you will be liable for a late submission penalty point.

If you volunteered to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax for the 2025 to 2026 tax year, you must submit your tax return by 31 January 2027.

If you miss the deadline for submitting your tax return you will be liable for a late submission penalty point if you are volunteering.Hide all sections

Add your other sources of income and gains

You need to make sure all your other taxable sources of income or gains for the year are included in your software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

For Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, different information about your other income sources will be added by you and by HMRC. You need to check that all information added is correct.

Information HMRC will add

If HMRC already has information about your other sources of income and gains, we will add this into your tax return. This includes:

employment (PAYE) income
student loan repayments
income from state, private and occupational pensions
other taxable state benefits
Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) — subcontractor deductions
Capital Gains Tax residential property disposals
Marriage Allowance claims

After HMRC have added this information, you can find it in either your:

software, when you ask the software for a calculation
HMRC online services account

Information you will add

You still need to add other income sources into your tax return if you have not added them during the tax year and you need to declare them. For example:

savings
your share of profit from a partnership as an individual partner
dividends (including those from your own company)
any other income or gains that have not been automatically added

You need to add this information before you submit your tax return.

Check your information

Before you submit your tax return, check that the information added by you and HMRC is correct.

If something is incorrect or you need to update it, you can add the correct information, and this will overwrite the previous information.

Your information is only treated as final once you have submitted your tax return.

Submit your own tax return

You need to submit your tax return through your software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

You need to confirm in your software that:

you’re ready to submit your return
you agree with the calculation given in your software for tax due

You will also need to declare that the information you have provided is correct and complete to the best of your knowledge.

You should only do this after you’ve added all of your income sources and gains, and checked that all of your information is correct.

Go into your software and confirm you’re ready to submit your tax return.
View the calculation in your software that shows you the amount of tax due.
Check the calculation is correct.
Submit your tax return by declaring that your information and calculation is correct.

You’ll then see a message in your software to tell you your tax return has been submitted.

Submit your client’s tax return

You need to submit your client’s tax return through software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. You can only do this if you are your client’s main agent.

If your client, or a supporting agent, has sent quarterly updates or added other income sources and gains, you can view and check these details in your software, but you will not be able to view their digital records.

You should speak to your client, or their supporting agent, if you need to access or make any corrections to their digital records.

When you’ve added all your client’s income and gains and checked everything is correct, you’re ready to submit your client’s tax return.

Go into your software and confirm you’re ready to submit your client’s tax return.
View the calculation in your software that shows you the amount of tax due.
Check the calculation is correct.
Share a copy of the calculation with your client and confirm with them they agree with it.
Submit your client’s tax return by declaring that the information and calculation is correct to the best of your knowledge.

You’ll then see a message in your software to tell you your client’s tax return has been submitted.

If you disagree with the calculation or there is an error in your softwareHide

You should check the information you’ve added in your software. If there is an error, you can correct it in your software before you submit your tax return.

If your software does not give you a calculation when you ask for one, there is an error. Your software should explain what to do next. If it does not, contact your software provider for support.

If you’re volunteering to test Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

If you disagree with the calculation your software shows you when you go to submit your tax return, you can contact the dedicated customer support team for help.

If your software does not support submission of your other income sourcesHide

You may be volunteering to test the service before 6 April 2026.

If your current software does not support the submission of your other income sources, ask your software provider if they will be adding this to your software and by when.

If they are not adding this function or if it will not be in place before you need to submit your tax return, you can either:

choose alternative or additional software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which will support the submission of your other income sources
contact the dedicated support team for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

After you have submitted your tax return

If you need to correct or include something else, you can amend your return.

The information you give to HMRC will generate your Self Assessment tax bill for that tax year.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will not change the way you pay tax or the dates that payments are due. If you do not pay your Self Assessment tax bill by the relevant deadlines, you will be liable to pay a late payment penalty.

If your circumstances change

Find out what you need to do when your circumstances change, such as adding and ceasing your income sources, changing software or tax agent, adjusting payments on account, and amending a submitted tax return.

After signing up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, you may have a change in your circumstances.

You’ll need to tell HMRC about the changes. This may be a one-off notification, or to report new information relating to a change.

You’ll be able to report most changes using your existing HMRC online services, or you’ll need to contact our dedicated customer support team.Hide all sections

Adding a new self-employment or property income source

To include a new source of self-employment or property income, you should add it to your HMRC online services account. If you’re an agent, this can be done in the Manage your client’s Income Tax details section.

You will need to provide details about your self-employment and property income sources. This includes your start date if it’s within the last 2 years. For property income sources, this is the date you started to receive rental income. You’ll also need to confirm which accounting method you will use as this should be the same method used for all income sources.

You should then check your software to make sure the business details have been updated. You may need to refresh it in your software. You can then send quarterly updates which will include your new income source.

If you’re not able to keep digital records of the new income source, you still need to report it using your software before you submit your tax return. If you’re not able to report your new income source through compatible software, you’ll need to opt out of the testing phase.

Ceasing self-employment or property income sources

You can use your HMRC online services account to cease a source of self-employment or property income. You can do this by entering the date the income source stopped.

After you’ve notified HMRC, you will not need to send any quarterly updates once the business has ended.

Changing your software

You can change the software you use for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax either:

after the end of the tax year
during the tax year

You still need to store your digital records for the correct length of time if you change your software.

You should also make sure you can access your digital records from previous tax years. For example, you may need to export your digital records from your old software and store them securely.

If you change your software after the end of a tax year

You do not need to import your digital records from previous tax years into the new software.

You do need to store your digital records from previous tax years securely and be able to access them.

If you change your software during a tax year

If you use software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax to create digital records, you will need to either:

import your digital records into your new software for the current tax year
recreate the records in your new software

If you use software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax to connect to your records (bridging software) you will need to link your new software to your record-keeping software.

Changing your tax agent

If you change your tax agent, you need to request your digital records from previous tax years. You’ll need to store your digital records from previous tax years securely and be able to access them.

You’ll need to make sure that:

you and your new tax agent use software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, and, if you use different software products, these work together to meet your needs
your new tax agent is authorised to act for you and use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax on your behalf
your new tax agent has access to your previous records

Opting out during the testing phase

If you’ve signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax voluntarily, you can opt out at any time during the testing phase.

If you choose to opt out, you’ll no longer need to send quarterly updates for self-employment or property income and expenses using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Updates you’ve sent will be deleted for the tax year you’re opting out for.

You’ll still need to submit a Self Assessment tax return as usual. You should also find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax in the future.

You can use your HMRC online services account to opt out. Go to View deadlines and Manage how you report to inform us you wish to opt out.

If you’re an agent, you’ll be able do this once you’re authorised and can access your client’s HMRC online services account.

Adjusting your payments on account

Payments on account are advance payments towards your tax bill (including Class 4 National Insurance if you’re self-employed).

If you know your tax bill will be lower than last year, you can reduce your payments on account. You can do this in your HMRC online services account. Access the ‘What you owe’ and ‘Adjust payments on account’ for the tax year sections.

Amending a tax return

If you’ve submitted a tax return using your chosen software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and are within the amendment window, contact the customer support team to discuss how to make an amendment.

If you submitted a paper or online tax return for a previous year, follow the guidance to make changes for Self Assessment tax returns.

What to do if you sign up during the tax year

If you sign up after the tax year started, you can either:

catch up now with all digital record keeping and quarterly updates
start keeping digital records from the date you or your client signed up and update earlier records later

For example, you may choose to catch up later if you do not normally do record keeping until the end of the tax year.

All digital records must be created and quarterly updates sent before submitting the tax return (due by 31 January following the tax year).

Those who have signed up early to the testing phase of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will not receive penalties for late quarterly updates for the 2025 to 2026 tax year.

Read more information on the penalties that will apply if you use the service.

If you choose to catch up later

You can send nil returns for earlier update periods that ended before you signed up. Once you create digital records, they’ll be added to the next quarterly update you send. If you create your digital records after the end of the tax year, you’ll need to resend your fourth quarterly update.

If you become digitally excluded

You may become digitally excluded if your circumstances change.

For Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, digitally excluded means it’s not reasonable for you to use compatible software to keep digital records or submit them to HMRC.

If you’ve signed up because you are required to use Making Tax Digital and think you’ve become digitally excluded, find out if you can get an exemption from Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

If you’re volunteering to test Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

If you signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax voluntarily and have then become digitally excluded, you should opt out using your HMRC online services account.

Information about how to do this is in the ‘Opting out during the testing phase’ section.