Making Tax Digital and your changing obligations

HMRC’s efforts to digitalise the tax system are taking shape and it is worth being aware of how your tax filing obligations are going to change.

Individuals with total gross income from self-employment and property exceeding £10,000 in a tax year will be within the scope of “making tax digital for income tax self-assessment” (MTD for ITSA, or MTD hereafter) from April 2026.

This requires that:

  • Digital records of income and expenses are kept,
  • Summary updates of income and expenses are provided to HMRC every quarter, and
  • End of period statements are finalised with MTD-compliant software.

The quarter end dates are the 5th day of July, October, January and April, with the quarterly report due on the 5th day of the month following the quarter end. The first submission will therefore be for the period 6 April 2026 to 5 July 2026 (or 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026 if a “calendar quarter election” is made) regardless of the accounting year of the taxpayers.

The deadline for the first MTD submission will therefore be 5 August 2026.

The end of period statements (which you may see referred to as EOPS) are due with the tax return.

Tax payment deadlines are unchanged, so the usual payments on account in January and July (if required), and a January balancing payment, will still apply. Having filed quarterly statements, taxpayers should have a better idea of how much they need to set aside for tax, although their other income will remain unreported until the filing of a tax return.

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What should I be doing to prepare for MTD?

Landlords and businesses that will be within the scope of MTD can prepare for the roll-out by starting to keep digital records of their income and expense data. There will be a number of MTD-approved software options available, including by way of add-ins to existing popular cloud accounting software.

Read our comprehensive blog post for more information on how Landlords will be affected by the new digital tax changes in 2026.

Thanks to our accountant, for this summary. If you wish to speak to them about your tax situation click here or email us at julie@justdoproperty.co.uk.

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