Whether you’re a letting agent, property developer, manage rental properties or earn a rental income, Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax is a major change to how you keep track of your business income and expenses throughout the year. It’s the biggest transformation since Self Assessment launched in 1997 and I believe this change will make your life easier.

What’s changing
From April 2026, if your turnover is above £50,000 from self-employment and property income combined, you’ll need to use MTD-compatible software to keep digital records for sending HMRC quarterly updates and your tax return. Those with turnover above £30,000 will follow from April 2027 and with turnover above £20,000, in April 2028.

Quarterly updates aren’t tax returns – they’re simple, unadjusted summaries of income and expenditure that your software generates automatically. Instead of cramming everything into January for the Self Assessment deadline, you’re spreading the load across the year. If you make any errors in a quarterly update, don’t worry, you can make corrections in the next update.

You’ll still submit a traditional Self Assessment for the previous tax year during your first year on MTD, but after that, everything can be handled through your software.