The £30,000 MTD threshold: who joins in April 2027

The first wave of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started in April 2026 for people with qualifying income over £50,000. The second wave is now close: from 6 April 2027 the threshold drops to £30,000. If you have been watching from the sidelines, this is the year to find out whether you are in.

What "qualifying income" means

HMRC looks at your gross income, before any expenses, from two sources added together:

• rental income from property, and
• turnover from self-employment.

Employment income through PAYE, pensions, dividends and interest do not count. A landlord with £24,000 of rent and a side business turning over £8,000 has qualifying income of £32,000 and is in the April 2027 wave, even if the profit after expenses is a fraction of that.

For jointly owned property it is your share of the gross rent that counts, normally half for a married couple unless you have told HMRC otherwise on Form 17.

Which year HMRC measures

HMRC uses the tax return you file for 2025/26, the year that ended on 5 April 2026 and is due by 31 January 2027. If that return shows qualifying income above £30,000, MTD applies to you from 6 April 2027. This is why the year you are living through now decides nothing; it is the year that has just closed.

Three things to do this autumn

1. Check your number. Add up gross rent and self-employment turnover for 2025/26. The MTD checker does the arithmetic and tells you your start date.
2. Get your records digital before you have to. MTD does not require you to change how you run the property; it requires the records to be kept in software and sent quarterly. Starting a year early means your first mandatory quarter is routine, not a scramble.
3. Decide on software once, not four times a year. The things that matter are HMRC recognition, how it handles mortgage interest under Section 24, and whether you can take your data with you. Our guide on choosing MTD software lists the questions worth asking.

Just under the line?

If your qualifying income is between £20,000 and £30,000, your date is April 2028. Below £20,000, there is currently no mandation date, although you can join voluntarily. Either way, the digital-records habit is worth starting now; the tax rules are the same whether HMRC is watching quarterly or annually.