Specialist Tax News

Digital record keeping and quarterly reporting requirements for traders and landlords (“MTD”)

Updates are continuing to come through on HMRC’s ‘Making Tax Digital for Income Tax’ (‘MTD for IT’) initiative. It will initially apply from 6 April 2026 for sole traders and property landlords who generated gross trade and rental income (‘qualifying income’) of more than £50,000 in the 2024/25 tax year.

The MTD for IT rules are mandatory and, if affected, you will be required to use ‘MTD-compatible software’ to maintain digital records and send a quarterly summary of your business and/or property income and expenses to HMRC, along with your end-of-year tax return.

In a welcome announcement, the government said that for individuals mandated into MTD for IT in 2026/27, penalties for late quarterly summaries will not be issued.