Do I need Making Tax Digital if I earn under £30,000?
18 October 2026 · 5 min read · Checked against GOV.UK 16 October 2026
The thresholds, and which year counts
Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax is arriving in three stages. Each stage looks at the tax return from two years earlier, so the year that decides your start date has usually already happened.
| Qualifying income over | On your tax return for | You start |
|---|---|---|
| £50,000 | 2024 to 2025 | 6 April 2026 |
| £30,000 | 2025 to 2026 | 6 April 2027 |
| £20,000 | 2026 to 2027 | 6 April 2028 |
“Over” means exactly that: if your qualifying income is exactly £30,000, you don't join in 2027.
Qualifying income is turnover, not profit
This is where most people get caught out. Qualifying income is all the money that came into your self-employment and any property you let, before you take off expenses. Wages from a job, pensions, savings interest and dividends don't count.
Example: a cleaner earning £34,000
Example: a part-time trainer with a job
If you have a business and rental income, add them together. Someone with £18,000 of self-employment and £14,000 of rent has qualifying income of £32,000. See MTD for landlords for how property income is counted.
What if I earn under £20,000?
At the moment there's no date for bringing people with qualifying income of £20,000 or less into MTD. You keep filing your Self Assessment tax return once a year as you do now. You can join MTD voluntarily if you want to, but you don't have to.
What if my income goes up and down?
- Going up: each April, HMRC looks at the return from two years before. If you cross a threshold, you join the following April.
- Going down: once you're in MTD, one quiet year doesn't take you out. You can choose to leave if your qualifying income stays at or under the threshold for three tax years in a row.
Check your own start date
Our free MTD checker works it out from your turnover and tells you your first deadline. HMRC also explains how to work out qualifying income (opens in a new tab), including what happens if you started or stopped a business part-way through the year.
Even if MTD isn't coming for you until 2028, starting to keep digital records now makes the switch painless, and it's the easiest way to know what to put aside for tax.