UK Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: which year sets your start date?
For UK sole traders and landlords within the rules, if your self-employment and property income before expenses was over £50,000 in the 2024 to 2025 tax year and no exemption applies, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has applied to you since 6 April 2026. Under standard update periods, your second quarterly update, covering 6 April to 5 October, is due on 7 November 2026. Two details catch people out: the start date depends on an earlier tax year, and the test uses income before expenses, not profit.
Which year sets your start date
HMRC's eligibility guidance applies to sole traders and landlords within its rules. Each start date depends on qualifying income in a tax year that ended a year earlier. The test is income over each threshold, so qualifying income of exactly £30,000 in 2025 to 2026 does not meet it.
Exemptions can change the outcome, and HMRC has not yet set a timetable for partnerships. Not receiving a letter from HMRC does not remove your responsibility to check whether you are in scope.
| Qualifying income in | Income over | Start date |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 to 2025 | £50,000 | 6 April 2026 |
| 2025 to 2026 | £30,000 | 6 April 2027 |
| 2026 to 2027 | £20,000 | 6 April 2028 |
Sources and context, checked :
Qualifying income is counted before expenses
Add your self-employment income and property income before deducting any expenses. Employment income, dividends, pensions and your share of partnership profit do not count.
For example, someone with £24,000 of self-employment turnover and £9,000 of property income in 2025 to 2026 has £33,000 of qualifying income. Neither source is over £30,000 on its own, but the total is, so under the ordinary rules and without an exemption they would start on 6 April 2027.
HMRC's guidance covers exceptions for jointly owned property, short accounting periods, sources that have stopped, VAT, residence and reliefs. It also describes a special rule for people who only receive their share of joint-property income after expenses. Read those sections if any apply to you.
Sources and context, checked :
What a quarterly update contains
A quarterly update sends HMRC your income and expense totals for the tax year so far, through compatible software, for each business. You send one even for a period with no income or expenses. Updates are summaries, not tax returns: you do not send individual receipts or invoices, and you do not need to make accounting or tax adjustments first.
Under standard periods, the second update covers 6 April to 5 October and is due on 7 November. Because the totals are for the year so far, that update should include everything from 6 April, including anything missing from the first one. If you chose calendar quarters before your first update, your period ends differ, so check the dates in your software.
Dates that are easy to mix up
For people who started in April 2026, these three dates cover two tax years: the November update and the January 2028 return relate to 2026 to 2027, while the January 2027 return relates to 2025 to 2026.
HMRC will not give penalty points for late quarterly updates in the 2026 to 2027 tax year. The updates must still be sent before you can submit the tax return through your software, and penalty points for a late tax return still apply.
| Date | What is due | Tax year |
|---|---|---|
| 7 November 2026 | Second quarterly update, standard periods | 2026 to 2027 |
| 31 January 2027 | Usual Self Assessment return | 2025 to 2026 |
| 31 January 2028 | Tax return through MTD software | 2026 to 2027 |
Sources and context, checked :
Prepare the records for each update
A short routine before each deadline keeps the year-to-date totals reliable.
- Keep each business's income and expenses separate, because each needs its own update.
- Record takings, rents and expenses as they happen rather than in a year-end batch.
- Check the records against bank statements before each update to catch missing or duplicated items, remembering that cash takings and some expenses may never pass through the business account.
- Record your share of income and expenses from jointly owned property and check HMRC's joint-property rules.
- Decide who supplies the records, who checks the totals and who submits, especially where an agent acts for you.
- Save the software's submission confirmation with that period's records.
What to do this week
If you were due to start in April 2026, log in to your software or HMRC account, confirm your first update shows as submitted and, if you use standard periods, finish checking your records for 6 April to 5 October before 7 November. If you were outside the April 2026 group because your 2024 to 2025 qualifying income was not over £50,000, add up your 2025 to 2026 turnover and gross rents now: if the total is over £30,000 and no exemption applies, April 2027 is likely to be your start date.