MTD for Income Tax: your 90-day countdown checklist
Last checked: 9 September 2026 · Source: GOV.UK
Whichever cohort you're in, April 2026, 2027 or 2028, the practical prep is the same shape. Here's what's worth doing in the three months before your first quarterly deadline, roughly in the order it actually needs to happen.
1
Confirm you're actually in scope, and from when. Check your qualifying income against the right tax year for your threshold. See our qualifying income and threshold pages.
2
Choose MTD-compatible software. Check HMRC's published list on GOV.UK, and confirm with the provider directly that it supports your specific situation, including multiple businesses or overseas property if that applies to you. See our software page.
3
Sign up for MTD for Income Tax through HMRC's online service, using your Government Gateway login. You'll need the date your business or property income started, and your business details if you're a sole trader.
4
Start keeping digital records from day one of the tax year you're joining in, not from your first deadline. Quarterly updates cover cumulative periods from 6 April, so gaps early in the year still need filling in later, and it's far easier to record things as they happen than to reconstruct them from memory in July.
5
Diarise every deadline for the tax years you're covered by, including the Final Declaration, not just the next quarterly update sitting closest on the horizon. This is the one step this calendar exists to save you from doing manually.
6
If you have an agent or accountant, loop them in early on your software choice, since they may need to be authorised on the same platform to act on your behalf, and that authorisation itself takes time to set up properly.
If you're in the 2026/27 first cohort specifically
Remember the 2026/27 soft landing removes penalty points for a late quarterly update this year only. It's breathing room to get the process right, not a reason to delay setting it up until the deadline is already close.
What tends to go wrong when people skip ahead
The most common mistake we see isn't missing step 1 or 2. It's step 4. People choose software and sign up correctly, then don't actually start recording income and expenses until their first quarterly deadline is a week away, and end up reconstructing three months of transactions from bank statements under time pressure. The setup steps are the easy part. The habit is the hard part.
Step 5, solved. Every deadline for every cohort, already in your calendar with reminders built in.