Making Tax Digital deadlines, in full
Three mandation dates, three thresholds, and three different tax years deciding them. One has already happened, one is roughly eight months away, and one is planned rather than fixed. Below: which is yours, and what a year inside MTD actually looks like from April to April.
Last verified 31 July 2026. The MTD timetable has been changed before — re-check with HMRC before you act.
When does Making Tax Digital for Income Tax start?
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax arrives in three waves. It started on 6 April 2026 for qualifying income over £50,000. The next wave is 6 April 2027 for qualifying income over £30,000. A third wave for qualifying income over £20,000 is planned for April 2028.
The subtlety that catches people is that each wave is judged on an earlier tax year than the one you start in. Your start date is not decided by how you are doing when it arrives; it is decided by how you did one or two years before. Here is the whole thing.
| Mandation date | Qualifying income threshold | Decided by your income in | Status at 31 July 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 April 2026 | Over £50,000 | 2024/25 | Already live This cohort is inside MTD now and filing quarterly updates. |
| 6 April 2027 | Over £30,000 | 2025/26 | The live deadline. About eight months away. The tax year that decides it has already closed, so your figure is fixed. |
| April 2028 | Over £20,000 | 2027/28 | Planned Not yet in force. The deciding tax year has not started. |
Qualifying income means gross self-employment income plus gross property income, added together before expenses — turnover, not profit. Partnership income, dividends, savings interest, PAYE employment and pensions are excluded. Combined gross income of £20,000 or less keeps you outside MTD for Income Tax entirely. Verified 31 July 2026. Work out your own band with the MTD eligibility checker.
Which tax year’s income decides my start date?
An earlier one than the year you start in. The 6 April 2026 wave was decided by your 2024/25 income, the 6 April 2027 wave by your 2025/26 income, and the planned April 2028 wave by your 2027/28 income. You do not get to influence the figure once that year has closed.
This matters more than it sounds, and it cuts both ways.
- If you are heading for 6 April 2027, your fate is already sealed. The 2025/26 tax year ended on 5 April 2026. Whatever your gross self-employment and property income came to in that year is the number, and no amount of adjusting this year’s trading changes it. The practical instruction is simple: go and look it up.
- A good year long past can bring you in during a bad year. If 2025/26 was strong and 2026/27 is weak, you still join on 6 April 2027. MTD does not wait for you to be comfortable.
- And a bad year does not release you. Once you are in, you must be under the threshold for three consecutive tax years before you can leave. One quiet year is not enough.
The one thing to do this week
Find your gross self-employment turnover and gross rent for the tax year that decides your wave, add them, and compare the total to £20,000, £30,000 and £50,000. Use the figures at the top of your accounts, not the profit at the bottom and not what landed in your current account. The checker will do the arithmetic and give you your date.
What a year inside Making Tax Digital looks like
Five submissions instead of one: four quarterly updates covering the four quarterly periods of the tax year, then a final declaration that settles the year.
A mandated year replaces the single annual Self Assessment return with four quarterly updates plus one final declaration, all sent from software HMRC recognises. The quarterly updates are running summaries of business income and expenses; the final declaration is where the year is pulled together and settled.
The tax year is unchanged — it still runs from 6 April to 5 April — and it is divided into four quarterly periods. In the standard arrangement those periods follow the tax year directly:
- Quarter 1 — 6 April to 5 July
- Quarter 2 — 6 July to 5 October
- Quarter 3 — 6 October to 5 January
- Quarter 4 — 6 January to 5 April
Then, after the tax year has ended, the final declaration. That is the submission that takes the four quarters, adds anything else that belongs on your tax return, applies reliefs and adjustments, and produces the real figure for the year. It is the thing that replaces your Self Assessment return.
We are not going to print submission deadlines we have not verified
You will find pages that state each quarter’s exact filing deadline to the day, and a points-and-penalties table to go with it. We have not verified those dates or those penalty values, so they are not on this page.
That is a deliberate choice, and it is the whole basis on which this site asks to be trusted. A confidently-stated wrong HMRC date is far more damaging than an honest gap — someone would plan around it. Submission windows can also interact with elections you may or may not have made about your accounting period, which means a single universal answer would be misleading even if we had one.
Get the exact dates that apply to you from the source: HMRC’s Making Tax Digital for Income Tax guidance on gov.uk, or your accountant. If you want to know how we decide what goes on a page and what does not, our research method is published.
What does not move
MTD is a reporting reform. It changes the rhythm of what you send HMRC, not the tax you owe. The rates, the allowances and the way profit is calculated are unaffected, and the tax year still runs 6 April to 5 April. Do not assume your payment dates change — and do not take our word for what they are. Payment deadlines are outside the set of facts we have verified, so confirm yours with HMRC.
What the four quarters are actually for
A quarterly update is a summary, not a mini tax return. It does not settle anything, it is not a payment, and it is not final. The value HMRC is after is a running picture rather than a twelve-month reconstruction each January. The value for you, if there is one, is that the January cliff-edge stops existing — provided you actually do the bookkeeping as you go rather than doing four Januaries a year. More on what goes into a quarterly update.
Where each group stands right now
As at 31 July 2026, the three waves are in three genuinely different places. Find yours.
Over £50,000 — 6 April 2026
Already filing
You came into MTD for Income Tax on 6 April 2026, on the strength of your 2024/25 qualifying income. Digital records and quarterly updates are a live obligation for you now, not a future one.
If you have not started, the useful next step is an accountant this week, not a software comparison. And remember the exit takes three consecutive years under the threshold.
Over £30,000 — 6 April 2027
Roughly eight months out
This is the deadline that matters right now. Your 2025/26 figure is already fixed, so the only unknown is whether you have looked it up. If it is over £30,000 gross, your date is 6 April 2027.
Spend the time on getting records digital, not on choosing software. The migration is the hard part; the software decision is small and there are free options.
Over £20,000 — April 2028
Planned, not promised
Judged on 2027/28 income, a tax year that has not begun. This wave is planned, and the MTD timetable has slipped before, so we are not going to sell it to you as a certainty.
Prepare cheaply. Move your bookkeeping to something digital you would want to use anyway, and you lose nothing whichever way the date goes.
How long before my date should I start preparing?
Start in the tax year before the one you are mandated in. The submissions themselves take very little time; getting a full year of income and expenses into digital form, with a clean opening position, is the job that takes months and the one people leave too late.
A sensible order of work, with the cheap steps first:
- Confirm your figure and your date. Free, takes ten minutes with your accounts open. Use the checker, then verify against HMRC.
- Ask your accountant what they want. Also free, and it will shape everything after it. If someone already does your books, their preferred software is a strong default.
- Get your records digital. Bank feeds connected, receipts captured, categories agreed. This is the multi-month piece. What counts as a digital record.
- Run one quarter voluntarily before you have to. Do a full quarter of digital bookkeeping in the year before mandation so your first real submission is not also your first attempt.
- Choose software last. It is the cheapest and most reversible decision on the list. Compare the options priced over 24 months.
Sticking with spreadsheets?
You can keep using a spreadsheet under MTD, but you will need bridging software to make the actual submission, because updates have to come from software HMRC recognises rather than from a form on a website. Whether that is cheaper than a proper package depends on how much reconciliation you are doing by hand. We work that through here.
Does hitting the deadline mean paying for software?
It means using software HMRC recognises, which is not the same as paying much for it. Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent and Sage are all on HMRC’s recognised list, and so are cheaper and free options — MTD compatibility is table stakes, not a premium feature, and any page selling you an upgrade on the strength of it is selling you something every competitor also has.
Three facts in this category cost us commission, so here they are:
- FreeAgent is free permanently with a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account (Mettle requires one transaction a month). Otherwise it is £399 over 24 months on the sole trader plan.
- Sage has a genuinely free sole trader tier at £0, capped at five invoices a month and non-VAT only.
- QuickBooks is £121.20 cheaper than Xero over 24 months on entry plans — £186 against £307.20, ex VAT.
The trap: QuickBooks Sole Trader at £10 a month cannot file a VAT return, and neither Sage sole trader tier can. If you are VAT registered, or expect to be within two years, price from the plan that actually files VAT. All figures ex VAT and verified 31 July 2026; Sage quotes plus VAT and we have normalised it. Promotional rates are new-customer offers that expire, usually after six months — which is exactly why we price everything over 24 months.
Vendor sites, plain public UK links, earning us nothing today: Xero UK · QuickBooks UK · FreeAgent · Sage UK. Confirm recognised status on HMRC’s own list at gov.uk before you subscribe.
MTD deadlines: common questions
When does Making Tax Digital for Income Tax start?
It started on 6 April 2026 for people with qualifying income over £50,000 in 2024/25. The next date is 6 April 2027 for qualifying income over £30,000 in 2025/26. A third wave for qualifying income over £20,000 in 2027/28 is planned for April 2028.
Which tax year’s income decides my start date?
An earlier one than the year you start in. The 6 April 2026 wave was decided by 2024/25 income, the 6 April 2027 wave by 2025/26 income, and the planned April 2028 wave by 2027/28 income. For anyone facing 6 April 2027, that year has already closed — the figure exists and cannot be changed.
How many submissions do I make in a year under MTD?
Five. Four quarterly updates covering the four quarterly periods of the tax year, plus one final declaration that pulls the year together and settles your position. That replaces the single annual Self Assessment return.
What are the exact quarterly filing deadlines?
We do not publish them, because we have not verified them. The tax year is divided into four quarterly periods running from 6 April, and each has its own submission window set by HMRC. Those windows can also be affected by elections about your accounting period, so a single universal answer would be misleading. Get the dates that apply to you from HMRC on gov.uk or from your accountant. A wrong date stated confidently would be worse than no date.
What are the penalties for filing late under MTD?
HMRC operates a points-based penalty system for late submissions, but we are not printing point values or penalty amounts we have not verified. Check the current rules on gov.uk or ask your accountant. We would rather have a gap on this page than a confident invention.
Can I leave MTD if my income falls below the threshold?
Not straight away. Once you are inside MTD for Income Tax you must be under the threshold for three consecutive tax years before you can leave. Plan your bookkeeping as something sustainable rather than something to survive for a year.
Is the April 2028 date certain?
No, and we would rather say so. April 2028 is planned. The MTD timetable has been delayed and re-scoped more than once, and the tax year that would decide that wave — 2027/28 — has not started. The two dates you can plan around with confidence are 6 April 2026 (done) and 6 April 2027 (coming).
Do my tax payment dates change under MTD?
MTD is a reporting reform rather than a change to what you owe. But payment deadlines are outside the set of facts we have verified for this page, so we are not going to state yours. Confirm your payment dates with HMRC or your accountant.
The bottom line
If your gross self-employment and property income together came to more than £30,000 in 2025/26, your Making Tax Digital date is 6 April 2027 and you have roughly eight months. If it was over £50,000 in 2024/25, you are already in it.
Everything else on this page is detail. Get your real gross figure, confirm your band, write your date in a calendar, and spend the intervening months getting records digital rather than shopping for software. And confirm the specifics — particularly submission dates and penalties, which we have deliberately not guessed at — with HMRC or a qualified accountant. Nothing on this page is tax advice.
Up to the pillar
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax explained
The plain-English pillar guide: what MTD is, what qualifying income means, and the worked example on gross versus profit.
Across the silo
The MTD eligibility checker
Enter your gross self-employment and property income and get your cohort, your date and your next step.
Down to software
UK accounting software, priced over 24 months
Every product priced after the introductory discount expires, including the free routes that earn us nothing.