How to sign up for
Making Tax Digital

Signing up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is a short online service. The work is in what comes before it, choosing software and checking you need to use the service, and what comes after, connecting the software and keeping your records in it.

This guide follows GOV.UK's own order. It covers who can sign up, the two things to do first, what the sign-up service asks you, the identity check, and the first things to do once you are in. Everything here comes from GOV.UK's sign-up page, last updated on 13 October 2026, and the pages it links to.

“You should choose your software before you sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.”

Who can sign up

GOV.UK sets two conditions. To sign up you must:

1. be registered for Self Assessment;
2. have submitted a tax return in the last 2 years.

HMRC checks you are eligible from the details you give in the sign-up service. If you are not registered for Self Assessment yet, register first: HMRC's improved registration service, launched in September 2026, puts your Unique Taxpayer Reference in your online account within 72 hours instead of up to 15 days by post. If you are registered but did not file a return for 2024 to 2025, HMRC says you will need to reactivate your account if you need to submit one for 2025 to 2026.

Partnerships are not in Making Tax Digital for Income Tax yet. GOV.UK says partnerships will need to use it in the future and that HMRC will set out the timeline later. Your share of a partnership's profit does not count towards your qualifying income, but you still include it in your tax return through your software.

Do you need to sign up now?

You need Making Tax Digital for Income Tax if you are a sole trader or landlord whose qualifying income, your self-employment and property turnover added together before expenses, was over the threshold on the return HMRC looks at.

GOV.UK's instruction for the first group is direct: if you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax for the 2026 to 2027 tax year, you should sign up now. From September 2026 HMRC also began signing up people in that group who had not joined, in stages; if that has happened to you, what to do when HMRC signs you up covers the next steps.

If you are not sure which group you are in, the MTD requirement checker works it out from your figures. Before you sign up, GOV.UK also suggests checking whether you are exempt: if you are, you do not have to sign up at all. The exemptions guide lists who is.

Step 1: choose your software

GOV.UK's five-step guide for sole traders and landlords runs: work out your qualifying income, find out if and when you need to use the service, get compatible software, sign up, then use Making Tax Digital. Software comes before signing up, and GOV.UK's software page says the same in as many words.

HMRC does not provide software. You, or an agent for you, need commercial software that can create and keep your digital records, send your quarterly updates and submit your tax return by 31 January after the tax year. GOV.UK describes two kinds: software that creates the records itself (by linking to your bank account, scanning receipts or typing entries in), and bridging software that connects to records you already keep in a spreadsheet.

When you compare products, GOV.UK suggests checking that the software:

• supports all your income sources, self-employment and property alike;
• can send quarterly updates and submit your tax return;
• lets you report your other income so you can complete the return;
• works with your accounting period;
• suits your budget: free products are available for simple tax affairs, though they may have limits such as a number of transactions.

You can use only one product for each separate submission, so a landlord cannot split their property updates across two products. The HMRC software directory lists every product HMRC recognises with what each covers; all the software on HMRC's own finder has been through its recognition process, and HMRC does not recommend any product.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax so far

• More joining from 6 April 20271,077,000
• In scope for 2026-27864,000+
• Signed up by 12 August 2026570,000+
• First update sent by 12 August 2026436,000+

Step 2: gather what the sign-up service asks for

The sign-up service asks about your self-employment and property income, including any that has stopped since your last tax return. GOV.UK lists what you will need:

• your business start date, or the date you started receiving property income, if it was within the last 2 tax years;
• confirmation of the tax year you will start using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

If you are a sole trader, you also need:

• your business name, the name you use on your invoices;
• your business address;
• the nature of your business, your trade.

If you have more than one trade or property business, check each one in the service and add any that are missing. You will not be asked about your other income, such as savings or dividends: you add those to your software before you submit your tax return.

Step 3: sign in and confirm your identity

GOV.UK says to use the same user ID and password you got when you registered for Self Assessment. Once you have signed in, you may be asked for further proof of your identity. If you are, you use an app on your mobile phone to provide details of your current passport or driving licence; HMRC removed the option to answer questions instead on 13 October 2026. If you have trouble confirming your identity, GOV.UK says to contact HMRC for support.

Online services can be slow at busy times, and GOV.UK links a service status page for checking problems. With the 7 November 2026 deadline close and HMRC campaigns running through October and November, do not leave it to the last day.

Step 4: tell HMRC about income that has stopped

The sign-up service asks you to include self-employment or property income that has ceased since your last tax return. If all your self-employment and property income has stopped, GOV.UK says you need to tell HMRC before the start of the next tax year; if you do not, you will need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. HMRC will update your records and write to confirm you will not need to use it.

After you sign up

Once you are signed up, three things matter:

1. Find the service in your account. You access Making Tax Digital for Income Tax through your existing HMRC online account, with your Self Assessment sign-in details. If it does not appear, GOV.UK says to add it with "Add a tax to your account".
2. Connect your software. In your software, choose the option to connect with HMRC, sign in with the details you used to sign up, pass the identity check if asked, and give permission. You repeat this every 18 months, without the identity check.
3. Check your update periods. Software defaults to standard update periods, 6 April to 5 April. If your accounting period runs from 1 April to 31 March, select calendar update periods in your software before your first quarterly update; you cannot change them for that tax year afterwards. Standard versus calendar quarters explains the choice.

Then create your digital records from the start of the tax year and send each quarterly update by its deadline. If you signed up partway through 2026 to 2027, GOV.UK says to catch up your records from the start of the year, and there are no penalties for missing a quarterly update deadline in that year. The first steps after signing up guide covers this in detail, and every date is on the Making Tax Digital deadlines page.

The 2025 to 2026 return still goes the usual way

Signing up does not change the return for the year before you start. GOV.UK says you still need to submit a Self Assessment tax return for the tax year before you start using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. For anyone starting in April 2026, that is the 2025 to 2026 return, due by 31 January 2027.

If someone else does it for you

GOV.UK says that if you use an agent, they can sign you up instead. They can do so only once you have authorised them, and your existing Self Assessment authorisation is recognised for Making Tax Digital. The guide to signing up through an accountant covers main and supporting agents and the authorisation link.

If it goes wrong

Most sign-up problems come down to records HMRC holds being out of date, a business that has stopped, or trouble with the identity check. For sign-up questions, Self Assessment general enquiries is on 0300 200 3310, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Questions about your software go to your software provider; HMRC says it cannot answer technical questions about software. The sign-up problems guide goes through the common ones.

TapTax is built for people doing this for the first time. Once you sign up and connect it to HMRC, it imports your bank statements from the start of the tax year, sorts them into HMRC categories, shows each quarterly update for you to check before you file, and lists the updates HMRC is waiting for. The glossary entry on Self Assessment and the one on your UTR cover the registration side.