What is the MTD £50,000 threshold?

If your qualifying income from self-employment and property was over £50,000 in the 2024/25 tax year, you must use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026.

Does the £50,000 threshold count profit or turnover?

Turnover. Qualifying income is gross income before expenses are deducted, based on your 2024/25 Self Assessment tax return.

Does my salary from employment count towards the £50,000?

No. Only gross self-employment and property income counts towards the threshold.

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THRESHOLDS · £50,000

The £50,000 MTD threshold, explained

Last checked: 9 September 2026 · Source: GOV.UK

Was your qualifying income from self-employment and property over £50,000 in the 2024/25 tax year? Then you're required to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026. This is the first group HMRC is bringing in, and it's the largest single wave of the rollout.

Qualifying income means gross income. Turnover, before you take off a single expense. Not profit. HMRC pulls the figure straight from the Self Assessment return you already filed for 2024/25, so there's nothing new to calculate. You can check it yourself right now, on the return you've already submitted.

How the test actually works

Your 2024/25 qualifying income	What happens
Over £50,000	Mandated into MTD from 6 April 2026
£30,000 to £50,000	Not mandated in 2026. Tested again against 2025/26 income for the 2027 cohort
£20,000 or under	Not currently mandated. Can still volunteer

Self-employment and property income are added together for this test. Take a sole trader earning £35,000 who also lets a flat for £20,000 gross. Combined, that's £55,000 in qualifying income. Over the threshold, even though neither source alone would put them there.

A worked example

Priya runs a graphic design business and had £61,000 in sales during 2024/25, with £14,000 of expenses (software subscriptions, a laptop, a portion of her home office costs). Her profit was £47,000. Her qualifying income, the figure MTD actually tests, was £61,000. She's in scope from 6 April 2026, despite her profit sitting well under the £50,000 line.

What's not counted

Employment income (a salary from a job), pensions, dividends, savings interest and capital gains don't count towards this threshold. Only gross self-employment and property income does. If most of your income comes from a PAYE job and you have a small side business, it's worth checking the side income alone against the threshold, not your total earnings.

If you're just over the line

There's no rounding, no grace band, no soft edge. £50,001 in qualifying income for 2024/25 puts you in scope from April 2026 in exactly the same way £80,000 does. If you're close to the threshold and still unsure which side you fall on, pull your actual 2024/25 figure rather than estimating from memory. Estimating is how people end up either signing up unnecessarily or missing a deadline they didn't know applied to them.

What happens once you're in

From 6 April 2026 you keep digital records and send four quarterly updates a year, plus a Final Declaration by 31 January. Your first quarterly deadline is 7 August 2026. What you actually pay, and when, doesn't change. The 31 January and 31 July payment dates stay exactly where they were.

This is the first of three thresholds. See every date it produces, already built into a calendar you own.

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Questions

I'm just under £50,000. Do I need to do anything right now?
Not for the 2026 cohort. You'll be tested again against your 2025/26 income for the £30,000 threshold that applies from April 2027. See our £30,000 threshold page.

Does my day job salary count towards the £50,000?
No. Only gross self-employment and property income counts. See our full breakdown of what counts as qualifying income.