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Self-employed taxpayers and landlords will have to use MTD from April 2026 if their turnover exceeds £50,000. Only self-employment income and rental income is included for this purpose, with income from other sources – such as employment income, partnership income and investment income – ignored.
Some taxpayers in the correct income bracket are currently excluded from joining the pilot scheme, for example partners in a partnership and those with jointly owned property
Taxpayers with income of between £30,000 and £50,000 will not be mandated until April 2027.
Although free to join early, they might prefer to wait a year.
The pilot scheme is live again after pausing in 2023, but it comes with some warnings, including:
Some taxpayers falling into the correct income bracket are currently excluded from joining the pilot scheme, for example, partners in a partnership, those with jointly owned property or those claiming the married couple’s allowance.
One obvious advantage to joining MTD early is that users will get the chance to test a full cycle of submissions before MTD becomes mandatory. Early users will receive considerably more support during testing than those who are subsequently mandated. Early adopters will have access to a dedicated HMRC support team, with this team not limited to just dealing with MTD-related queries.
They will also deal with wider self-assessment issues, so the wait times common with HMRC helplines can be avoided.
