Who is exempt from Making Tax Digital for Income Tax?
Short answer
You are exempt automatically if your qualifying income is £20,000 or less, if you had no National Insurance number before the tax year, and in a few other listed cases. You can also apply as digitally excluded if using software is not reasonable for you. Exempt people still file a Self Assessment return.
Automatic exemptions
HMRC applies these from its records; you do not apply (GOV.UK):
- Qualifying income of £20,000 or less.
- No National Insurance number before the start of the tax year.
- Partnerships, for now.
- Trustees, personal representatives and non-resident companies filing their own returns.
- Some reliefs and forms on your 2024 to 2025 return, such as qualifying care relief or averaging relief as an individual, exempt you until April 2027 at the earliest. Others, such as Blind Person's Allowance or being a minister of religion, last beyond.
Digitally excluded
You can apply if it is not reasonable for you to use software, for example because of age, health or disability, the beliefs of a religious society you belong to, or no internet access at home or work because of where you are.
HMRC will not accept these reasons on their own: you filed on paper before, you do not know accounting software, you have few records, or MTD costs extra time or money.
If you are not exempt
Check your date: do I need MTD from April 2027. Octobooks keeps the books of UK sole traders and landlords and sorts every entry into the categories of the self-employment pages (SA103F) and the UK property pages (SA105). Its Making Tax Digital for Income Tax connection is built and runs end to end against HMRC's test service (the sandbox). Octobooks is not on HMRC's list of compatible software yet; we are working towards recognition. Until it is listed, send your updates and your return through a product that is on the list.
More questions
- What is Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD ITSA)?
- Do I need Making Tax Digital from April 2027?
- What is qualifying income for Making Tax Digital?