Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is not a new tax and it does not change what anybody owes. It changes how records are kept and how the figures reach HMRC: digitally, out of software, instead of typed into a form once a year.
What people actually want to know is when it starts for them. HMRC has published that, and it depends on one number.
Who it applies to
HMRC states that you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax if all of the following 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 more than the relevant threshold for the tax year.
Two of those three are easy to answer about yourself. The third is the one worth being careful about, because “qualifying income” is a defined thing rather than a figure off your accounts, and GOV.UK has a separate page for working it out.
The three levels, and the three start dates
Taken straight from the eligibility guidance, if your qualifying income is over:
- £50,000 for the 2024 to 2025 tax year, you should have started using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026, and HMRC says you can still sign up if you have not already done so
- £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, you will need to use it from 6 April 2028
HMRC also says that if your qualifying income for the tax year was over £50,000, you should have received a letter confirming that you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. If you think you are in that band and no letter arrived, that is worth chasing rather than assuming.
Partnerships
This is the part that gets misreported. GOV.UK's wording is: “Partnerships will also need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax in the future. We'll set out the timeline for this at a later date.”
So partnerships are in scope eventually, and there is no published date. Anyone telling you otherwise is guessing.
HMRC writes to you, but the duty is yours either way
The eligibility guidance sets out how this is supposed to work: HMRC reviews your Self Assessment tax return and checks your qualifying income each tax year, and if it is above the relevant threshold they write to you confirming that you need to start using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax by the start of the following tax year.
Then it says the part worth reading twice: “If you did not receive a letter, it is still your responsibility to check if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, and make sure you are signed up and prepared to use it when you need to.”
So a letter that never arrived is not a defence. If you think your qualifying income is over the threshold, HMRC's own advice is to use the checker on that page, and to speak to your tax agent if you have one.
Exemptions exist, and they do not cancel the tax return
There are exemptions. GOV.UK gives being digitally excluded as an example, and has a separate page on which ones are automatic and which you have to apply for. The important sentence is this one: if you are exempt you will not need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, “but you must continue to report your income and gains in a Self Assessment tax return”.
An exemption is a change to how you report, not to whether you report.
Qualifying income is a defined figure, not your profit
HMRC has moved the detail of what counts as qualifying income onto its own page, and it matters because the whole timetable turns on that one number. It is not the same as taxable profit, and where a property is jointly owned there are rules about whose share counts.
Two things that still apply
First, HMRC states that you still need to submit a Self Assessment tax return for the tax year before you start using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Starting on the new system does not cancel the old year.
Second, to sign up you must be registered for Self Assessment and have submitted a tax return in the last two years.
What we would do about it
The practical work is a setup job, once: getting records into software that can file, and making sure the way the business records things survives the change. After that it is simply how the year runs.
If you want to know which of the three dates above is yours, run HMRC's checker or send us the question. And check the source below before acting on any date in this article, the timetable has already moved once, and the page itself was last updated in March 2026.