From 6 April 2026, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax becomes mandatory for anyone with self-employment or rental income of £50,000 or more in 2024–25. If that’s you, you need to act before April, not in April.
A few things that catch people out.
It’s your gross rental income that counts, not your profit. So if your properties bring in £60K but expenses eat most of it, unfortunately you are still in scope. Foreign rental income counts too.
MTD IT – this is a separate registration from Self Assessment; being registered for one doesn’t mean you’re registered for the other. So if you are not registered for Making Tax Digital – you need to do it now.
Salary, dividends, interest and capital gains – those don’t count towards the threshold, for what it’s worth.
Another thing to remember, threshold also drops to £30,000 in 2027–28 and £20,000 in 2028–29, so even if you’re just under it now, it’s worth keeping an eye on. So may be it’s time to rethink your tax plans and structure properly.
If you have had a letter from HMRC about this recently, that’s exactly what it’s about. Worth getting sorted sooner rather than later.