UK Making Tax Digital Guide 2026/27

Why this one

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is the largest change to how self-employed people and landlords report to HMRC in a generation, and most of what is written about it is written by software companies who would like to sell you something. This guide explains what the rules require, what they do not require, and what your actual options are — including the free ones. It works out exactly who is in and when, with nine worked cases; explains how qualifying income is measured and why loss-making businesses can be caught by it; sets out what a quarterly update contains and what it emphatically does not do; explains digital links with examples of what breaks one; covers the points-based penalties, the exemptions, and what to do in the year before you are brought in. It ends with a month-by-month calendar and a checklist you can print.

What you get

• A guide in 21 chapters, as a PDF
• What it actually is
• When it reaches you
• Qualifying income, measured exactly
• Is it me? Nine people, worked through
• The quarterly deadlines
• What a quarterly update actually contains
• The final declaration
• Digital records: what must actually be in them
• Digital links, which is the bit that catches people
• What you actually have to buy
• The spreadsheet route, in detail
• Penalties
• Who is exempt, and who only thinks they are
• If HMRC signs you up
• The year before you are brought in
• What changes on the day it starts
• If you have more than one business
• What to do, and when
• Mistakes that will cost money
• The Making Tax Digital year, month by month
• The one-page checklist

Need more than one? This is also in the UK Self Employed Complete Tax Bundle 2026/27 (£30.99) — the same files at a lower price than buying them one by one.

Questions