Last checked: 9 September 2026 · Source: GOV.UK
If your qualifying income from self-employment and property was over £20,000 in the 2026/27 tax year, you're required to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2028.
This threshold has the most recent legislative history of the three. It started as a direction of travel flagged at Spring Statement 2025, nothing more solid than an intention. It was then formally confirmed in a measure published on GOV.UK on 24 March 2026, reducing the mandation threshold from £30,000 to £20,000 from April 2028.
| Your 2026/27 qualifying income | What happens |
|---|---|
| Over £30,000 | Already mandated from an earlier cohort. This doesn't change your position |
| £20,000 to £30,000 | Mandated into MTD from 6 April 2028 |
| £20,000 or under | Automatically and permanently exempt, unless your circumstances change. See our exemptions page |
If you join from April 2028, your first quarterly update covers 6 April to 5 July 2028, due 7 August 2028. Your first Final Declaration, for the 2028/29 tax year, is due 31 January 2030.
When this measure was published, HMRC said it would separately explore how to bring the benefits of digitalisation to the roughly four million taxpayers under this threshold, without committing them to mandatory MTD. No date or mechanism for that has been confirmed as of writing. If you're in this group, nothing changes for you right now beyond staying aware that the direction of travel, over the past decade of Making Tax Digital, has consistently been downward.
Three years separate this threshold from the £50,000 one. That's a shorter runway than the £50,000 cohort got, and it's worth planning for a genuine possibility: further threshold reductions beyond £20,000 haven't been ruled out, they simply haven't been announced yet.
All three thresholds' deadlines, 2026 through 2029, are already built into the calendar with reminders.
Is the £20,000 threshold definitely happening?
More so than it once was. Unlike earlier statements of intent, this is now a published measure on GOV.UK, not just a Budget mention. As with any tax rule two years out, treat the date as confirmed policy today, and re-check nearer the time in case anything shifts.