Making Tax Digital: Five Filings a Year Instead of One

If you are self-employed or you let out property, the once-a-year tax return is being retired. In its place: quarterly updates to HMRC, kept in software, plus a final declaration at the end of the year.

It is called Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, and it is being introduced in stages by income level. The first stage is already live.

When it reaches you

It depends on your qualifying income — broadly your gross income from self-employment and property before expenses, not your profit.

• Over £50,000 — from 6 April 2026. Already in force.
• Over £30,000 — from 6 April 2027.
• Over £20,000 — from 6 April 2028.

The threshold is based on the tax year two years before. So whether you are caught in April 2027 depends on your 2025/26 figures — the return you file by 31 January 2027.

Two things people get wrong here. It is turnover, not profit, so a business with £35,000 of income and £20,000 of costs is over the £30,000 line even though it made £15,000. And it is combined — self-employment plus property income together, not each separately.

What you actually have to do

Three changes from how it works now.

Digital records. Income and expenses have to be kept in compatible software or a bridging tool. A shoebox of receipts and a spreadsheet you total up in January will not satisfy the requirement on its own.

Quarterly updates. Four times a year you send HMRC a summary of income and expenses for the period. These are updates, not four tax returns — they are cumulative summary totals, and you are not calculating your tax bill each quarter.

A final declaration. After the year ends you confirm the figures, add anything else — other income, reliefs, allowances — and that replaces the Self Assessment return.

So it is five submissions a year rather than one. The payment deadlines have not changed: still 31 January, with payments on account in January and July where they apply.

Why the government is doing it

The official reason is the tax gap — the difference between tax that should be paid and tax that is. HMRC's position is that a large share of that gap comes from mistakes and from people not taking reasonable care, rather than deliberate evasion, and that keeping records digitally and reporting more often reduces errors.

It is worth being clear about what this is and is not. Making Tax Digital applies to everyone over the threshold, whatever their record. It is not aimed at people who have done something wrong, and being brought into it says nothing about you. But it does mean HMRC sees your figures four times a year rather than once, and it makes it harder for a business to run informally and tidy things up at the year end.

Who is exempt

Some people are outside it, including those who are digitally excluded — where age, disability, location or religious belief make it not reasonably practicable to use the software. That exemption has to be applied for, not assumed.

Below the income threshold for your stage, you carry on with the normal Self Assessment return.

What to do now

Work out which stage catches you. Take your gross self-employment and property income together, look at the thresholds above, and remember it is judged on the figures from two years earlier.

Sort your record-keeping before the deadline, not after. The people who struggle with this are the ones who leave software until the quarter has already started. If you are caught from April 2027, the sensible time to change how you record things is the start of a tax year, not the middle of one.

Check what your software actually does. Some accounting packages handle submissions directly. Some spreadsheets can be used with bridging software. HMRC publishes a list of compatible products.

Talk to your accountant early if you use one. Their workload moves from one annual job to five, and the good ones are booking that work in advance.

The honest summary

For an organised business already using accounting software, this is largely a change of rhythm. For someone who does their books once a year on the kitchen table in January, it is a real change in how the year works, and it arrives whether or not the current system was causing anyone a problem.

Either way it is not optional above the threshold, and the dates are set. Knowing which year catches you is the useful bit.

General rights guidance, not legal advice. Figures and dates verified against GOV.UK and HMRC sources, September 2026.