Making Tax Digital Services

For Self-Employed & Landlords

We Handle It So You Don’t Have To – from Setup to Submission

From April 2026, if you’re self-employed or a landlord earning over £50,000, you’ll need to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC. It’s quite a shift from the old once-a-year tax return – but you don’t have to figure it out on your own. We take care of the whole thing for you.

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UK Tax Professionals – AAT Licensed Accountants and HMRC Registered Agents. We’ve been helping small businesses, sole traders and landlords with their tax since 2007

What is Making Tax Digital for Income Tax?

Instead of one tax return a year, you’ll now report to HMRC four times a year – digitally

So what is it? Making Tax Digital for Income Tax – MTD ITSA as HMRC calls it – is basically a new way of reporting your income. Right now you file one Self Assessment at the end of the year and that’s it. Under MTD, that changes. You’ll need to send updates to HMRC every quarter. And you’ll need to do it using software or a digital spreadsheet. No more paper. No more once-a-year.

HMRC wants everything online and more regular. That’s really what this is about.

Starts April 2026

Affects self-employed people and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000.

From April 2027

The threshold is expected to drop to £30,000, so even more people will be brought in over time.

Do I Need MTD? What Does It Require? Deadlines 2026/27 Real Examples

Who Needs to Register for Making Tax Digital in 2026?

Quick check: if your gross income from self-employment and/or rental property was over £50,000 in the 2024-25 tax year – this applies to you.

Not sure? Let’s go through it.

Self-employed earning over £50,000 gross?

Yes. You need to register.

Landlord with rental income over £50,000 gross?

Yes. Doesn’t matter if you’ve got one property or ten. HMRC treats all your UK properties as one business.

Employed (PAYE) but also have rental income?

Your salary doesn’t count. Only your rental income. So if rent alone is under £50,000 – you don’t need to join yet.

Got a second business or side hustle?

HMRC adds it all up. Self-employment plus rental. If the combined gross total is over £50,000, you’re in.

Just PAYE, nothing else? This doesn’t affect you.

Important: gross means total income before expenses. Not your profit. Big difference.

Key Terms Explained

You’ll see these words a lot with MTD. Here’s what they actually mean

Reporting Business

Each separate source of income that HMRC tracks under MTD. Your self-employment is one reporting business. A second trade is another. All your UK rental properties combined? That’s one more. They’re counted separately.

Qualifying Income

Your gross income before expenses from self-employment and/or rental property. Not profit. Not what’s left after you pay bills. The full amount coming in.

Quarterly Updates

Four times a year you send HMRC a summary of your income and expenses. Replaces the old “do it all in January” approach.

End of Period Statement (EOPS)

After your four quarterly updates, you send this. It basically finalises your business figures for the tax year. Think of it as the full stop at the end.

Final Declaration

This is the last step. It replaces your Self Assessment tax return. You confirm everything is correct and HMRC calculates what you owe.

MTD ITSA

Just the official name. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment. You’ll see it on HMRC letters and guidance. Same thing.

What Does MTD for Income Tax Require?

The big change: you can’t just do everything once a year anymore. MTD means regular reporting throughout the year

Here’s what you’ll need to do under MTD:

Keep digital records

No more shoeboxes full of receipts. Your income and expenses need to be recorded digitally. Either through accounting software like QuickBooks or in a structured spreadsheet. Updated regularly, not once a year in a panic.

Submit quarterly updates to HMRC

Four times a year. Each one covers a three-month period. You’re basically telling HMRC “here’s what I earned and spent this quarter.”

File an End of Period Statement

After your four quarters are done, you finalise your figures for the year.

Submit a Final Declaration

This replaces your old Self Assessment tax return. You confirm everything, HMRC tells you what you owe.

So how many submissions is that per year?

For one reporting business – that’s 4 quarterly updates, 1 EOPS, and 1 Final Declaration. Six in total.

Got two or three reporting businesses?

Multiply the quarterly updates and EOPS. It adds up quick. For example, if you’re self-employed AND have rental property, that’s 8 quarterly updates, 2 EOPS, and 1 Final Declaration. Eleven submissions a year.

And if you miss deadlines? HMRC has a new points-based penalty system. Each late submission gets you a point. Hit the limit and you get a financial penalty. It’s not forgiving.

MTD Deadlines & Submission Dates 2026/27

Mark these dates. Missing them means penalty points

Here’s what the first year looks like for one reporting business:

Submission	Period Covered	Deadline
Quarter 1	6 April 2026 – 5 July 2026	7 August 2026
Quarter 2	6 July 2026 – 5 October 2026	7 November 2026
Quarter 3	6 October 2026 – 5 January 2027	7 February 2027
Quarter 4	6 January 2027 – 5 April 2027	7 May 2027
End of Period Statement	After all 4 quarters	By 31 January 2028
Final Declaration	After EOPS	By 31 January 2028

You get roughly one month after each quarter ends to submit. So it’s not next-day stuff. But it does mean keeping your records up to date throughout the quarter. You can’t leave it all to the last week.

Got more than one reporting business? Each one has its own set of quarterly updates and EOPS. Same deadlines though. So if you’ve got a trade and a rental property, you’re submitting two lots on each of those dates.

Examples – Real Scenarios

Not sure how MTD applies to your situation? Here are some common ones we see every day

Example 1

Self-Employed Plumber with a Rental Property

Let’s say you’re a plumber. Self-employed. You also rent out a flat. Your plumbing brings in £38,000 a year and the flat brings in £14,000. That’s £52,000 combined gross income. Over the £50,000 threshold. So yes, MTD applies to you from April 2026.

You’d have two reporting businesses. One for the plumbing. One for the rental. That means 8 quarterly updates, 2 End of Period Statements, and 1 Final Declaration. Thirteen submissions a year.

Example 2

Employed Full-Time but Own Two Buy-to-Lets

You work a normal PAYE job earning £45,000. You also own two rental properties bringing in £22,000 total. Your PAYE salary doesn’t count towards the threshold. Only the rental income. £22,000 is under £50,000. So you don’t need MTD yet.

But keep an eye on it. From April 2027 the threshold is expected to drop to £30,000.

Example 3

Two Self-Employed Businesses

You run a cleaning company and you also sell things on eBay. Cleaning brings in £35,000. eBay brings in £18,000. Combined that’s £53,000 gross. MTD applies.

HMRC treats these as two separate reporting businesses. So that’s two sets of quarterly updates. Two EOPS. One Final Declaration. It adds up.

Example 4

Self-Employed Earning Under £50,000

You’re a freelance designer earning £32,000 a year. Under the threshold. You don’t need to join MTD in 2026. You carry on with your normal Self Assessment for now.

But from April 2027, if the threshold drops to £30,000 as expected – you’d be in.

What We Do for You

You focus on your business. We deal with HMRC

Here’s what’s included when you work with us:

We register you for MTD. The whole signup process with HMRC. Government Gateway, authorisation, all of it. You don’t need to figure out the system yourself.

We set up your digital records. Whether that’s QuickBooks or a spreadsheet we create for you. Structured properly. Ready to go. We’ll walk you through how to use it too.

We review your income and expenses. Every quarter. We check everything’s recorded correctly, categorised right, and nothing’s been missed.

We submit your quarterly updates. All four of them. On time. You don’t need to touch the HMRC system at all.

We file your End of Period Statement. Once all quarters are done, we finalise your figures and submit.

We submit your Final Declaration. The bit that replaces your old Self Assessment. We handle it.

We’re here when you need us. Got a question in October? Not sure how to record something? Just send us a message. Phone, email, WhatsApp. We don’t do automated phone systems. You get a real person.

That’s everything from start to finish. Registration, setup, submissions, support. All included in your package.

Not sure which package suits you?

Fill in the form and we’ll get back to you with a recommendation. No obligation, just a quick chat to figure out what you need.

Name*

Email*

Have you received a letter from HMRC about Making Tax Digital (MTD)?*

How many UK rental properties you have?

How do you currently keep your records?*

What are you looking for?

What is your biggest concern about MTD?

Anything else we should know?*

MTD Compatible Software – QuickBooks or Spreadsheet

You don’t need expensive software. There are two options and we help you set up either one

Under MTD, you can’t just keep paper records anymore. HMRC requires your income and expenses to be recorded digitally. That means you need some kind of software or digital system that can store your records and send updates to HMRC.

The good news – it doesn’t have to be complicated. And it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. There are two ways to do it, and we support both.

Option 1: QuickBooks

This is proper accounting software. It connects to your bank, pulls in transactions automatically, and lets you upload receipts straight from your phone. If you’ve got a lot going on – lots of invoices, regular payments coming in and out – this makes life easier. It does the heavy lifting.

You buy the subscription yourself. We set everything up for you, show you how it works, and take it from there. If you’ve got more than one reporting business, you’ll likely need a separate subscription for each one.

Option 2: Spreadsheet (Google Sheets or Excel)

If software feels like overkill for your situation, this works just as well. We create a proper structured spreadsheet for you. Columns for income, expenses, dates, descriptions. All laid out clearly so you just fill it in as you go. It meets all of HMRC’s digital record-keeping requirements. No subscription needed.

If you’ve got more than one reporting business, we set up separate tabs or separate spreadsheets so nothing gets mixed up.

Both options are MTD compliant. Both get the job done. It just depends on what feels right for you.

One thing that matters with either option: use a separate bank account for your business. Mixing personal and business spending in one account creates a mess. Separate accounts keep everything clean and make your life much easier at quarter end.

How to Get Started

Three steps. That’s it

Step 1: Get in touch. Fill in the form on this page or give us a call. Tell us a bit about your situation – what you do, how many income sources you’ve got. Doesn’t need to be detailed. Just enough so we know what we’re working with.

Step 2: Free consultation. We’ll have a chat. 30 to 60 minutes. We’ll figure out if MTD applies to you, how many reporting businesses you have, which package fits, and whether QuickBooks or a spreadsheet makes more sense. No charge. No obligation.

Step 3: We set everything up. Registration with HMRC, software or spreadsheet setup, Government Gateway sorted. From that point on, we handle your quarterly submissions and you get on with running your business.

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0792 1869 959

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MTD Packages & Pricing

Simple pricing. No hidden fees. Everything included

All packages cover the full MTD process – registration, quarterly submissions, End of Period Statement, Final Declaration, and ongoing support. The only difference is how many reporting businesses you have and how complex your situation is. Setup fee is one-off. Monthly fee covers everything for the year.

Package	What’s Included	Setup Fee	Monthly Fee
MTD Basic 1 reporting business	4 quarterly submissions End of Period Statement (EOPS) Final Declaration Review of income & expenses Full support Best for: simple self-assessment, single landlord, low-moderate transactions	£60+VAT	£40+VAT
MTD Standard 2 reporting businesses	4 quarterly submissions End of Period Statement (EOPS) Final Declaration Review of income & expenses Full support Best for: self-employed + rental property, two self-employments, CIS worker with rental, UK + foreign property	£60+VAT	£65+VAT
MTD Complex 3+ reporting businesses or high volume / complex adjustments	4 quarterly submissions End of Period Statement (EOPS) Final Declaration Review of income & expenses Full support Best for: mixed income streams, high-volume businesses, significant reconciliations, complex tax adjustments	£60+VAT	£120+VAT

FAQ – Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

Quick answers to the questions we hear most

If you only have PAYE employment income, no. MTD does not apply to you. It only applies if you have qualifying income from self-employment and/or rental property above the threshold.

No. Your PAYE salary is not included. Only gross income from self-employment and/or UK rental property counts towards the MTD threshold.

Yes, if your total gross rental income before expenses is over £50,000. It doesn’t matter how many properties you own. HMRC combines all UK rental properties into one reporting business.

For each reporting business: 4 quarterly updates and 1 End of Period Statement. Plus 1 Final Declaration per person. So for one business that’s 6 submissions a year. For two businesses it’s 11.

Yes. Structured spreadsheets are allowed as long as they meet HMRC’s digital record-keeping requirements. You don’t have to buy accounting software.

HMRC uses a points-based penalty system. Each late submission earns you a point. Once you hit the threshold, you get a financial penalty. It’s best not to test it.

It’s the submission that finalises your business income and expenses after all four quarterly updates are done. Think of it as closing the books for the year before your Final Declaration.

Not completely. The Final Declaration replaces your annual Self Assessment tax return. But if you have other income that isn’t covered by MTD – like capital gains – you may still need to report that separately.

If you have more than one reporting business, each one needs its own records. With QuickBooks that usually means separate subscriptions. With spreadsheets we create separate files or tabs for each.

If your gross income was over £50,000 in the 2024-25 tax year, MTD applies from April 2026. But don’t leave setup until March. Getting registered and set up early gives you breathing room.

Got questions about MTD? Not sure if it applies to you? Drop us a message or give us a ring. First chat is always free.