Blog · 7 November 2026

How to sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

Signing up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is a separate step from registering for Self Assessment — and a separate step from choosing your software. You sign up once, through an online service on GOV.UK, using the same Government Gateway user ID and password you use for Self Assessment. Then you authorise your compatible software to connect to HMRC, and from your start date your quarterly updates go through that software. This guide follows the steps in GOV.UK and HMRC guidance, in order, including who can sign up now, who can sign up early, and what to do if HMRC has already signed you up.

Before you sign up: the two conditions

GOV.UK says that to sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax you must:

• be registered for Self Assessment — if you are a new sole trader or landlord who has never registered, that comes first; you will need your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) before you can sign up for MTD.
• have submitted a tax return in the last 2 years — HMRC uses your recent return to check your qualifying income and confirm which wave you are in.

You also need to be a sole trader, a landlord, or both. Partnerships are not in MTD for Income Tax yet — GOV.UK says they will need to use the service in future, with the timeline to be set out at a later date. If you are a partner in a partnership, you do not need to sign up for the partnership income itself, only if you also have sole-trader or property income of your own. And if you think you may be exempt — for example, because you are digitally excluded — check the exemption route on GOV.UK first: exempt people keep reporting through a Self Assessment return instead. Have these to hand before you start: your Government Gateway user ID and password, your UTR, and a list of your self-employment and property income sources, including any that have stopped since your last tax return.

Who can sign up now — and who waits

Whether you must use MTD, and from when, depends on your qualifying income — your combined self-employment and property income before expenses. HMRC reviews your Self Assessment return each tax year and writes to you if you are above the threshold for the following tax year, but GOV.UK is clear that no letter does not mean no obligation: it is still your responsibility to check and sign up in time. The waves are:

If you are not sure which wave you are in, run the Making Tax Digital checker — it works out your start date from your qualifying income. How that figure is worked out, and what counts towards it, is explained in MTD qualifying income: what counts and what doesn't. The April 2027 and April 2028 waves are covered in detail in MTD April 2027: what the £30,000 wave means and MTD April 2028: what the £20,000 wave means.

The sign-up, step by step

1. Check if and when you need to use MTD. Use the GOV.UK checker linked from the guidance, or the Making Tax Digital checker on this site, to confirm your wave and start date before you sign up.
2. Choose your software — or decide your agent will act for you. You can sign up without software in place, but you must get compatible software and authorise it before you start using MTD. HMRC provides no MTD for Income Tax software of its own. See MTD-compatible software: do you need accounting software, or will a spreadsheet and bridging software do? for the two routes. If you have an accountant or bookkeeper, they can sign you up on your behalf with your permission, using their Agent Services Account.
3. Go to the GOV.UK sign-up service. From the GOV.UK guidance page, follow the “sign up” link for individuals. Sign in with the same Government Gateway user ID and password you use for Self Assessment.
4. Confirm your income sources. HMRC will ask about your self-employment and property income, including any source that has stopped since your last tax return. Tell HMRC about every source — a property or trade left off the list is the most common reason sign-ups need correcting later.
5. Prove your identity if asked. HMRC may ask for extra proof of identity as part of sign-up — for example, matching a photo of your face to your passport or driving licence through the GOV.UK ID Check app on your phone.
6. Authorise your software. Once HMRC confirms your sign-up, connect your compatible software to HMRC so it can send quarterly updates on your behalf. Nothing reaches HMRC until this link is in place.
7. Start keeping digital records from your start date. From 6 April of your first MTD year, your income and expenses must be kept digitally, and your first quarterly update is due 7 August — see the MTD quarterly update deadlines for the full cycle.

Sign up before your start date — ideally before 6 April of your first MTD year — so your software is authorised and your records are digital from day one. And remember that signing up does not remove the return for the year before you start: you still need to submit a Self Assessment tax return for the tax year before your first MTD year, the usual way, by 31 January.

Signing up voluntarily — before you have to

You do not have to wait for your wave. GOV.UK says you can sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax before you need to use it, “to help you get ready” — for the current tax year or the next one. That is the sensible route if your qualifying income is close to the next threshold, or if you simply want your software, your records and your quarterly routine tested before the deadlines become mandatory. HMRC's guidance says that while you are using MTD voluntarily you will not get penalties for late quarterly updates — the point of volunteering is to learn the system, not to be punished by it. If your income later falls below the threshold for three tax years, GOV.UK says you can opt out again. The April 2028 wave, by contrast, has no grace year at all: from 2027/28, a missed quarterly update earns a penalty point straight away, as explained in MTD penalty points explained.

What if HMRC has already signed you up?

Since September 2026, HMRC has also begun signing up some people automatically — those whose 2024/25 return shows qualifying income over £50,000 and who had not signed up themselves. If that has happened to you, you will have been told, and GOV.UK has guidance on what to do next. Being signed up by HMRC does not finish the job: you still need compatible software, and you still need to authorise it, before any quarterly update can be sent. Check that your income sources are listed correctly, get your software connected, and start keeping digital records. If you disagree that you need to use MTD — for example, because your qualifying income was misread — GOV.UK says to contact HMRC rather than simply ignoring it.

Three mistakes to avoid

• Thinking Self Assessment registration is MTD sign-up. Being registered for Self Assessment, or even registered for MTD for VAT, does not enrol you in MTD for Income Tax. It is a separate sign-up, through a separate service.
• Signing up and never authorising the software. Sign-up alone sends nothing to HMRC. Until your software is linked, you cannot send a quarterly update — and the deadlines keep coming. The penalty estimator shows what missed deadlines cost once the points system applies.
• Forgetting the pre-MTD return. Your last Self Assessment return under the old system is still due by 31 January after that tax year ends. Landlords can follow the whole annual cycle — updates, end-of-period statements and the final declaration — in MTD for landlords: quarterly updates, end-of-period statements and the final declaration.

Sign-up itself is the easy part — ten minutes on GOV.UK once your details are to hand. The work is everything around it: knowing your wave, having software ready, and keeping digital records from your start date. Get those three right and the quarterly cycle is mostly routine.

Sources

• GOV.UK — Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (who needs to use MTD; waves: over £50,000 → 6 April 2026, over £30,000 → 6 April 2027, over £20,000 → 6 April 2028; sign-up requires Self Assessment registration and a tax return in the last 2 years; partnerships timeline to follow; exemptions; HMRC reviews returns each year and writes to those above the threshold)
• HMRC — Customers and agents preparing for MTD (service guide) (customers can sign up without software in place, but must get and authorise software before using MTD; agents may sign up on a customer's behalf with permission)
• GOV.UK — Send quarterly updates for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (first quarterly update due 7 August after the 6 April start; updates sent from compatible software)

Free information tool — not tax advice. Figures follow GOV.UK and HMRC guidance as checked on 7 November 2026. Confirm your own position with HMRC or an accountant.