Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: who has to comply, and when

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is arriving in stages, and whether it affects you comes down to one number: your income from self employment and property. This guide explains who is in, when, and how the threshold actually works, in plain English.

The short answer: you will need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax if your gross income from self employment and property is over £50,000 from April 2026, over £30,000 from April 2027, or over £20,000 from April 2028.

What counts toward the threshold

This is the part people get wrong. The threshold is based on your gross income, also called turnover, not your profit. It is the total your business and any property bring in before you take off any costs.

It also combines two sources:

• Income from self employment (sole trader work).
• Income from property (for example rental income).

If together those are over the threshold for that year, you are in. Income from a normal employed job, with tax taken through PAYE, does not count toward this test.

The timeline

• From 6 April 2026: you must use MTD for Income Tax if your gross self employment and property income is over £50,000.
• From 6 April 2027: the threshold drops to over £30,000.
• From 6 April 2028: it drops again to over £20,000.

One subtlety worth knowing: HMRC looks at a previous tax year to decide if you are in. For the £30,000 stage in April 2027, it looks at your 2025 to 2026 return, and for the £20,000 stage in April 2028, it looks at your 2026 to 2027 return. In plain terms, the income you report now can decide when you have to join.

What being "in" actually means

Once MTD for Income Tax applies to you, three things change:

1. You keep digital records of your income and expenses in compatible software, rather than on paper or in a loose spreadsheet.
2. You send HMRC a short update every quarter through that software.
3. You finalise everything once a year, which replaces the old Self Assessment process.

You do not need to become an accountant. You do need your records to live in software that talks to HMRC.

What to do now

• Work out your gross income from self employment and property for the year, and see which threshold you are near.
• If you are close to or over £50,000, get ready for April 2026. If you are over £30,000 or £20,000, your date is coming, so start good habits now.
• Keep your income and expenses in one place, and keep business money separate from personal money.

How Beri helps

Beri is built to make this genuinely simple. You describe what happened in plain English, and Beri keeps the digital records MTD requires and gets your quarterly figures ready, with no debits and credits to learn.

Want to be ready before the deadline? Join the Beri waitlist for early access and founder pricing.

Related: Making Tax Digital, explained in plain English and the future of MTD and falling thresholds.

General information, not tax advice, and the rules can change. Check the latest on gov.uk or ask a qualified adviser about your situation.