Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has officially moved from preparation to reality.
HMRC has confirmed that more than 436,000 sole traders and landlords have successfully submitted their first MTD quarterly update, while more than 570,000 people have signed up to the service.
For anyone who has been putting Making Tax Digital off, the message is becoming increasingly clear: MTD is no longer something to prepare for later. It is already part of the UK tax system.
And September 2026 marks another important step.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax became mandatory on 6 April 2026 for qualifying sole traders and landlords with total annual income from self-employment and property above £50,000.
The first quarterly update was due on 7 August 2026.
Now, from September, HMRC is beginning to sign up people who should already be using MTD but have not registered themselves. This will happen gradually over the coming months.
If HMRC signs you up, that does not mean everything is taken care of automatically.
You still need to check that HMRC has the correct information about your self-employment and property income, choose compatible software, create the necessary digital records and catch up with any quarterly updates you have missed.
This is why HMRC is encouraging eligible taxpayers to sign themselves up rather than waiting.
Read HMRC’s announcement about the first 436,000 MTD submissions
There is some breathing room during the first year.
HMRC has confirmed that no penalty points will be issued for late quarterly updates during the 2026/27 tax year. However, that does not remove the requirement to make the updates.
If you should already be using MTD, you need to create digital records from the beginning of the tax year and send any overdue updates through compatible software.
The next quarterly update deadline is 7 November 2026, followed by 7 February and 7 May 2027.
So if your first update is still outstanding, now is a much better time to sort it out than waiting until the next deadline approaches.
One reason MTD can sound intimidating is the phrase “quarterly reporting”.
But an MTD quarterly update is not another full tax return.
Your compatible software uses your digital records to calculate totals for your business or property income and expenses and sends those summaries to HMRC. HMRC itself describes quarterly updates as summaries rather than tax returns.
The bigger change is therefore not necessarily filling in four complicated tax returns every year.
It is changing from sorting out your records once a year to keeping your bookkeeping digitally up to date throughout the year.
That is exactly why choosing the right software matters.
Learn more about Making Tax Digital with Kletta
If your qualifying self-employment and property income was above £50,000 and you have not yet dealt with MTD, check your position now rather than waiting for HMRC to contact you.
If you have already been signed up by HMRC, check the income sources HMRC has on record, connect compatible software and catch up with your digital records and outstanding updates.
And if your income is below £50,000, MTD may still be coming soon. The threshold falls to more than £30,000 from April 2027.
The easiest transition is likely to be the one you do before you are under deadline pressure.
For sole traders, MTD should not have to mean adding another complicated accounting process to the working week.
Kletta is designed around everyday sole trader bookkeeping: recording income and expenses, capturing receipts, connecting transactions and keeping your records ready for Making Tax Digital.
Instead of treating each quarterly deadline as a separate project, your bookkeeping stays up to date as you go.
See how Kletta works for UK sole traders
With hundreds of thousands of businesses and landlords already completing their first MTD update, Making Tax Digital has passed an important milestone.
The question is no longer whether MTD is happening.
For many sole traders and landlords, it is simply whether their bookkeeping is ready for the next quarter.