Quarterly tax reporting is here – is HMRC ready?
For as long as many of us can remember, self-assessment has meant one tax return per year. But that’s now changed.
From April 2026, the government’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) program will require many sole traders and landlords to keep digital records and send quarterly updates of their income and expenses to HMRC using compatible software.
The first phase alone will bring hundreds of thousands of taxpayers in scope, applying to those earning more than £50,000 from self-employment or rental income, before expanding to lower income thresholds over the next few years.
On paper, this shift makes sense. It feels natural that digital records should reduce errors and give taxpayers a clearer, more up-to-date picture of their finances.
But what sounds like a perfect world on the face of it, is much more complex than that.
Inconvenience and tax stress
For many individuals, self-assessment is not just inconvenient, it causes...
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