What's Actually Changing in April 2026
From **6 April 2026**, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD ITSA) becomes mandatory for sole traders and landlords whose **qualifying income exceeds £50,000** for the 2024-25 tax year. The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028 — so even if you're not in scope this year, you almost certainly will be soon.
In practical terms, this means:
Who's In Scope on Day One
You must comply from April 2026 if **all** of the following are true:
Partnerships and limited companies are **not** affected by this April 2026 wave.
What "Digital Records" Actually Means
HMRC are stricter than people realise. A spreadsheet alone is **not** sufficient unless it's bridged to MTD-compliant software using digital links — no copy-paste, no retyping. Acceptable approaches include:
1. **Accounting software** (Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, Sage) used end-to-end.
2. **Bridging software** that pulls structured data from your spreadsheet and submits it.
3. **Lightweight MTD-only tools** that connect bank feeds and submit quarterly updates.
The common failure mode is keeping records in a spreadsheet, then manually re-entering totals into submission software. That breaks the digital-link rule.
The Quarterly Submission Calendar
For the 2026-27 tax year, your quarterly update deadlines are:
Quarterly updates are **cumulative totals**, not snapshot values, and they don't have to be perfect — adjustments happen at the final declaration. The point is to give HMRC visibility throughout the year.
A Practical 6-Step Readiness Checklist
1. Confirm whether you're in scope
Add up your 2024-25 self-employment turnover plus your gross rental income. If it crosses £50,000, you're in.
2. Pick MTD-compatible software now (not in March 2026)
HMRC publishes a list of recognised software. Pick one in autumn 2025 and run it in parallel with your current process for a quarter — don't wait for the deadline to discover a workflow problem.
3. Connect your bank feeds
Bank-feed integration is the single biggest time-saver. Most MTD tools support Open Banking with HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander and the major challenger banks.
4. Categorise your income correctly
Self-employment and property income are reported as **separate** trades. If you're both a sole trader and a landlord, you'll submit quarterly updates for both, separately.
5. Sign up via your HMRC Government Gateway
You don't get auto-enrolled — you (or your accountant) must actively sign up your business for MTD ITSA via gov.uk. Do this at least four weeks before your first quarterly deadline.
6. Plan your record-keeping cadence
The biggest behavioural shift is moving from "annual panic" to "monthly tidy-up". Block 30 minutes a fortnight to categorise transactions and reconcile your bank feed. It's a tiny investment that prevents quarter-end pain.
Common Pitfalls We See
How Regulas Helps
[Regulas](/portfolio/regulas) is our MTD-ready bookkeeping and compliance platform built for UK sole traders, landlords and micro-businesses. It handles bank-feed reconciliation, quarterly HMRC submissions, and the final declaration in a single workflow — with a free tier for businesses under the threshold so you can get the muscle-memory in place before you're forced to.
If you'd rather talk it through with a human first, [get in touch](/contact) — we'll happily walk you through whether you're in scope and what the cleanest path looks like for your situation.
**Holding crypto alongside your sole-trader or rental income?** The MTD ITSA threshold counts only your qualifying self-employment and property income — cryptoasset disposals are a separate CGT matter. Our companion piece, [Crypto Accounting in the UK 2026: A Plain-English Overview](/blog/uk-crypto-accounting-2026-overview), walks through how the two interact.
**This article is informational, not tax advice. For your specific circumstances, speak to a qualified accountant.**