Signing up early,
as a volunteer

If your income was over £30,000 on your 2025 to 2026 return, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax becomes compulsory for you on 6 April 2027. Over £20,000 on your 2026 to 2027 return, and it is 6 April 2028. You do not have to wait. GOV.UK says you can sign up before you need to use it, to help you get ready, and HMRC has been urging the April 2027 group to do exactly that.

Volunteering is a real choice with one permanent consequence, so this guide sets out what changes, the decision you cannot reverse, and how to leave if it does not suit you. Everything here comes from GOV.UK's sign-up and penalty pages for volunteers.

“Signing up now means you can prepare and familiarise yourself with the process before it becomes mandatory next April.”

Who can volunteer

The conditions are the same as for anyone signing up: you must be registered for Self Assessment and have submitted a tax return in the last 2 years. GOV.UK says you can sign up for the current tax year or the next one. Its example is someone who needs to use Making Tax Digital from 6 April 2027 but signs up and volunteers now.

GOV.UK's volunteering guidance is written for people with a start date ahead of them: qualifying income of £20,000 or less is automatically exempt, and the guidance does not say how volunteering works for that group. You sign up through the same service as everyone else; the guide to signing up covers what it asks for.

Signing up for this year or next

The choice of year matters more than it looks.

Volunteering for the current tax year means you start straight away, partway through the year. GOV.UK says you will need compatible software to send any missed quarterly updates for the year so far, and to create digital records from the start of the tax year. For 2026 to 2027, that means records from 6 April 2026 and catching up the updates already past.

Volunteering for the next tax year means you start on 6 April with a clean year. For the April 2027 group, signing up now for 2027 to 2028 changes little about the obligations, but it gets the sign-up, the software and the HMRC connection done before the rush.

If you choose the wrong year, GOV.UK says to contact Self Assessment general enquiries for support.

The penalty decision you cannot undo

This is the part to read twice.

While you volunteer, late quarterly updates are not penalised. GOV.UK says penalties do not apply to late quarterly updates while you are volunteering. You still need to keep digital records and send your quarterly updates before you can submit your tax return.

Late tax returns are, under the new points system. Penalty points still apply for late tax returns. For a volunteer the threshold is 2 points, and reaching it means a £200 penalty.

You agree to the new penalties when you sign up, permanently. GOV.UK says you will be asked in the service to agree that the new penalties apply to you. You cannot change your mind once you have agreed, and you cannot go back to the previous penalties even if you stop volunteering. HMRC writes to confirm when the new penalties will apply to you, once it has checked you are signed up and moved your records to its new platform.

Earlier years stay on the old rules. If you volunteer from 6 April 2026, the current penalties still apply to your 2025 to 2026 return, due by 31 January 2027.

Penalty point thresholds

• Volunteer (tax returns only)2 points
• Required to use it, from 2027-28 (updates and returns)4 points

When volunteering turns into being required

If you volunteer and then reach your compulsory start date, the rules change on that date. GOV.UK's example: you volunteer for 2026 to 2027 and are then required to use Making Tax Digital from 6 April 2027. From that date your threshold rises to 4 points, and a late quarterly update earns a point. If you already have a point when the threshold changes from 2 to 4, your points go up by 2, so 1 point becomes 3.

That last rule is easy to miss. A late tax return while volunteering does not stay a small thing: it moves with you into the stricter regime, one point from the £200 penalty.

Opting out

Volunteers can leave. GOV.UK lists opting out among the things you can do in your HMRC online account if you are using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax voluntarily, and you can sign up again later from the same place.

If you opt out, GOV.UK says:

• you no longer need to create digital records or send quarterly updates;
• any updates already sent are deleted for the tax year you opt out;
• you must send a Self Assessment tax return for that tax year, and you can use your MTD software for it if you prefer, but you do not have to.

The penalty agreement does not go away when you opt out: the new penalties still apply to you.

Is it worth volunteering?

GOV.UK and HMRC present volunteering as preparation: more time to choose software and to learn the process before it becomes compulsory. Whether it is worth it depends on how you keep records now.

It is most useful if:

• you already keep your records in software, or are about to start, and want to see the quarterly rhythm before deadlines carry points;
• your income is near £30,000 and you expect to be in from April 2027 anyway;
• you want your sign-up and software connection done well before your first deadline.

It is less useful if:

• you file your return late, or close to the deadline, in most years: as a volunteer, 2 late returns cost £200, and the agreement is permanent;
• your income is well below £20,000 and you have no start date ahead.

Either way, the records work is the same. You will keep digital records from the start of whichever tax year you begin, and your software builds each quarterly update from them. The pages on April 2027 and April 2028 explain who joins each group and when.

A dry run for the April 2027 group

HMRC estimates that around 1,077,000 more sole traders and landlords will need to use Making Tax Digital from 6 April 2027, based on its analysis of 2024 to 2025 returns. Its message to them in October 2026 was that customers who sign up early have more time to choose compatible software and prepare in their own time.

If that is you, there are two ways to use the time before April.

Volunteer for 2027 to 2028 now. You sign up, choose software and connect it, but your first quarterly update is not due until 7 August 2027, for the period from 6 April to 5 July 2027. You agree to the new penalties, but you were going to be on them from April anyway, with the stricter 4-point threshold once your start date arrives.

Do not sign up yet, but run your records digitally. Nothing stops you keeping your records in compatible software from now, without sending anything to HMRC. You get the habit of recording and categorising transactions as they happen, and you sign up when you are ready, before your start date. The difference is that nothing is sent, so nothing is tested against HMRC until you sign up.

Whichever you choose, check two things now that are hard to fix later:

• Your qualifying income. It is your turnover from self-employment and property together, before expenses. HMRC decides who joins in April 2027 from the 2025 to 2026 return, due by 31 January 2027.
• Your update periods. If your accounting period runs from 1 April to 31 March, you will want calendar update periods, selected in your software before your first update of the year.

Landlords and people with an accountant

Landlords volunteer the same way as sole traders. All your UK properties count as one UK property business, and all your foreign properties as one foreign property business, so a landlord with UK and overseas lets has two businesses to report on. The guide for landlords covers what that means for sign-up.

If you have an accountant, they can sign you up as a volunteer, and GOV.UK says an authorised agent can agree to the new penalties on your behalf. It also says they should discuss it with you first, because the agreement cannot be undone. The guide to signing up through an accountant explains how authorisation works.

Getting set up

Volunteering does not change the sequence: check you need it (or want it), choose software, sign up, connect the software, then keep records. First steps after signing up covers the connection and the update periods.

TapTax works for volunteers from day one: it imports your bank statements, sorts transactions into HMRC categories, shows each quarterly update for you to check before you file, and keeps the tax return in the same place. If you are not sure which group you are in, the MTD requirement checker tells you from your figures, and the glossary entry on penalty points explains the points system in brief.