HMRC’s September MTD Sign-up: What to Do If You Have Not Enrolled

HMRC can start signing up eligible people from September 2026

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is already underway for people whose 2024/25 Self Assessment return showed more than £50,000 of qualifying income from self-employment and property. HMRC’s current guidance says that, from September 2026, it will start signing up people who need to use MTD for Income Tax in 2026/27 and have not signed up themselves.¹

That does not mean it is too late to take control of the process. If MTD applies to you, enrolling yourself, or asking your agent to do it, gives you the opportunity to check the details HMRC will use and make sure your software and records are ready.

First, check whether you are in the 2026/27 group

For the first mandatory group, the test is qualifying income, not profit. HMRC defines this as total turnover from self-employment and property income before expenses, using the previous tax year’s submitted return. If the 2024/25 return showed more than £50,000, the start date was 6 April 2026.²

The later groups are based on more than £30,000 of qualifying income in the 2025/26 return (from 6 April 2027), then more than £20,000 in the 2026/27 return (from 6 April 2028). The thresholds are useful for planning, but they do not change the immediate task for the first group: keep the required records and get the current year in order.

What an enrolment does and does not solve

MTD for Income Tax requires compatible software to create and store digital records, send quarterly updates and submit the tax return. HMRC does not provide that software itself. A spreadsheet can still be part of the record-keeping process, but it needs compatible software that can link to it for the submissions.³

The quarterly updates are summaries of self-employment and property income and expenses. They are not tax returns. You still submit one tax return and pay any tax due by 31 January following the end of the tax year.⁴

A practical checklist for September

1. Confirm the income test. Use the submitted 2024/25 return, and total only self-employment and property turnover before expenses.
2. Check whether an exemption may apply. HMRC’s sign-up guidance directs customers to assess this before enrolling.⁵
3. Choose software that covers your circumstances. It needs to handle your self-employment and property sources, as well as the information you must add before the year-end tax return.
4. Bring records up to date. HMRC says a person who signs up part way through the tax year needs to catch up from the start of that tax year before their first quarterly update.⁶
5. Keep the annual return in view. The current 2025/26 Self Assessment return is still filed in the usual way; MTD applies to the 2026/27 tax year for the first mandatory group.⁷

Missing the first quarterly deadline is not a reason to wait

For the first MTD year, HMRC says it will not apply late-submission penalty points to late quarterly updates in 2026/27. That is a transition rule, not permission to ignore the updates: they must be submitted before the year-end tax return can be filed. Late tax-return and late-payment consequences still apply.⁸

The useful response is to turn the new requirement into a regular review: reconcile income and expenses, resolve missing evidence, then check the figures before each update. That gives you a more reliable picture of the year while leaving the tax return as the point where reliefs, other income and final adjustments are considered.