MTD checker: am I in Making Tax Digital?
Enter two numbers — your gross self-employment income and your gross property income — and this tool tells you which Making Tax Digital cohort you are in, what your mandation date is, and what to do next. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere, stored or logged.
Last verified 31 July 2026. Promotions change roughly monthly — confirm before you subscribe.
Check your Making Tax Digital position
Enter your gross figures — turnover, not profit, before any expenses are deducted. Qualifying income for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is gross self-employment income plus gross property income. Leave out employment, dividends, savings interest, pensions and partnership income; none of those count.
Your result will appear here
Enter your two gross figures above and this panel will tell you your cohort, your mandation date, the tax year it is judged on, and where to go next. In the meantime, here are the four possible answers in full.
£20,000 or less — outside Making Tax Digital for Income Tax entirely; Self Assessment continues unchanged.
Over £20,000 up to £30,000 — April 2028, planned, judged on the 2027/28 tax year.
Over £30,000 up to £50,000 — 6 April 2027, judged on 2025/26. This is the live deadline.
Over £50,000 — already mandated since 6 April 2026, judged on 2024/25.
Not tax advice — confirm with HMRC or your accountant. This tool applies the verified thresholds to the figures you type. It cannot see your records, it does not know your circumstances, and the MTD timetable has been re-scoped more than once. HMRC’s guidance is at gov.uk: Using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Why the checker gives the answer it does
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax arrives in three waves, each set by a gross income threshold and each judged on a different, earlier tax year. The checker does one thing: it adds your two gross figures and finds which band the total falls into. Below is the entire rule set it is applying — there is nothing hidden.
| Combined gross income | You start | Judged on | Status at 31 July 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| £20,000 or less | Not at all | n/a | Outside MTD for Income Tax entirely |
| Over £20,000 | April 2028 | 2027/28 | Planned Planned |
| Over £30,000 | 6 April 2027 | 2025/26 | The live deadline |
| Over £50,000 | 6 April 2026 | 2024/25 | Already live Live |
Source: the verified fact table in SITE-SPEC §3, from HMRC and ICAS material checked on 31 July 2026. Bands are “over” figures, so £30,000 exactly is not over £30,000. Quarterly filing deadline dates and penalty values are deliberately absent from this site — get those from gov.uk.
What counts as qualifying income, and what does not
Qualifying income is gross self-employment income plus gross property income — turnover, before expenses. Everything else you earn is excluded from the test, however large it is. A person with a £70,000 salary and £9,000 of rent has £9,000 of qualifying income, not £79,000.
Counts towards the threshold
- Gross self-employment income — everything invoiced or received for self-employed work, before expenses.
- Gross UK property income — rent received, before agent fees, mortgage interest, repairs or insurance.
- Gross overseas property income — counts towards the same total, though it is a separate business source for reporting.
Does not count
- PAYE employment income — your salary is irrelevant to this test, at any size.
- Partnership income — excluded.
- Dividends — excluded.
- Savings interest — excluded.
- Pension income — excluded.
The rule people trip over
Because the test is on turnover, a business with thin margins can be well inside Making Tax Digital while barely making a profit. A landlord with a large mortgage and a courier with high fuel costs are both classic cases. Never estimate your position from your profit figure. Go and find the top line.
The full explanation, with worked examples, is on am I affected by Making Tax Digital? Landlords should also read MTD for landlords, where gross rent and the UK-versus-overseas split are covered properly.
What to do with your result
Four results, four different next moves. None of them is “buy software immediately”.
£20,000 or less
You are outside MTD — read the pillar and stop worrying
Self Assessment continues exactly as now. Check the figure is gross before you relax, and remember the £20,000 line is the one that would eventually catch you if you grow.
Making Tax Digital explained →
Over £20,000 up to £30,000
April 2028 is planned, not promised — see the timetable
Judged on a tax year that has not started. Getting your bookkeeping digital now is cheap insurance; committing to an expensive product for a date that could move is not.
The full MTD timetable →
Over £30,000 up to £50,000
6 April 2027 — learn what you will actually be filing
This is the live deadline and your deciding figure is already in your 2025/26 records. Four quarterly updates plus a final declaration per business source.
What you submit each quarter →
Over £50,000
You are already in — fix the records first
Mandated since 6 April 2026. If this is news, an accountant this week beats another afternoon of reading. Then get the digital record-keeping right.
Digital records and digital links →
When you do get to software, the honest position is that MTD compatibility is not a differentiator — Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent and Sage are all on HMRC’s recognised list, and so are cheaper tools. Start with the genuinely free routes, then the cheapest over 24 months, and only then the full comparison. Landlords should go straight to best software for landlords.
MTD checker: common questions
Short answers. Where the honest answer is “check with HMRC”, that is what it says.
How does the MTD checker work?
It adds your gross self-employment income to your gross property income and compares the total with the three Making Tax Digital thresholds. Over £50,000 was mandated from 6 April 2026; over £30,000 from 6 April 2027; over £20,000 is planned for April 2028. £20,000 or less is outside MTD for Income Tax entirely.
Should I enter turnover or profit?
Turnover. Qualifying income is measured gross, before any expenses. A sole trader who invoices £46,000 and takes home £24,000 of profit enters £46,000. A landlord receiving £30,000 of rent enters £30,000 even if the mortgage swallows most of it. Entering profit is the single most common way to get a wrong answer here.
Which tax year’s figures should I use?
Each wave is judged on a different year: the 6 April 2026 wave on 2024/25, the 6 April 2027 wave on 2025/26, and the April 2028 wave on 2027/28. Use your most recent completed tax year for a first read, then check the specific year for your cohort on our deadlines page.
What income should I leave out?
Partnership income, dividends, savings interest, PAYE employment income and pension income are all excluded from qualifying income. Only gross self-employment income and gross property income count. Leaving employment income in is the second most common way to get a wrong answer.
Does the checker send my figures anywhere?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is submitted, stored or transmitted, there is no analytics call attached to it, and the page makes no external requests at all.
Is this an official HMRC tool?
No. It is an independent tool built by Fizoral from HMRC and ICAS material verified on 31 July 2026. It is not tax advice, and it cannot see your actual records. Confirm your position with HMRC or a qualified accountant before acting on it.
What if I am right on the line?
Do not rely on a borderline result. The thresholds are ‘over’ figures, so £30,000 exactly is not over £30,000 – but a figure you have estimated to the nearest thousand is not a figure at all. Go and get the real number from your records, and if it is still close, ask an accountant.
Carry on down the chain
The pillar
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
Who is in scope, the three mandation dates, and what qualifying income means.
The long version of this tool
Am I affected by MTD?
Worked examples, the exit rule, and the edge cases a two-field tool cannot cover.
Dates
The full MTD timetable
Every wave, the tax year it is measured against, and what is planned rather than law.
How we know
How we research
Where these figures come from, and why we refuse to publish a filing date we have not verified.