MTD for Income Tax (MTD for ITSA) extends Making Tax Digital from VAT to income from self-employment and property, and changes the rhythm of the year: instead of one annual Self Assessment, in-scope taxpayers keep digital records and send HMRC a quarterly update for each income source, followed by a year-end final declaration where allowances and adjustments come together. The quarterly updates are cumulative summaries — no tax is finalised until the year end. It is being phased in by income level, so confirm your own mandation date against current HMRC guidance rather than assuming.
From one return to four updates
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (often "MTD for ITSA", Income Tax Self Assessment) extends the MTD approach from VAT to income from self-employment and property. The headline change is the cadence: rather than a single annual Self Assessment, in-scope taxpayers keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC through compatible software, followed by a year-end process to finalise the position.
The quarterly updates are cumulative summaries of income and expenses for the period — not four mini tax returns. The tax isn't finalised each quarter; the year-end declaration is where the full picture, allowances and adjustments come together.
MTD for Income Tax is being phased in by income level, starting with the largest self-employment and property incomes and stepping down over subsequent years. Thresholds and dates have moved before, so confirm your own mandation date and turnover threshold against current HMRC guidance rather than assuming — the direction of travel is settled even where a specific date isn't.
What "digital records" really means
The same principle as VAT applies: an unbroken digital link from your records to what you submit. Income and expenses are recorded digitally and flow into the quarterly update without being re-keyed. For a business already keeping books in a spreadsheet or an accounting system, the work is connecting those records to HMRC — not replacing them.
The quarterly rhythm
- Keep digital records of self-employment and property income and expenses through the year.
- Send a quarterly update — a running total of income and expenses for each source — to HMRC through compatible software.
- Finalise at year end, bringing in reliefs, adjustments and any other income to settle the actual liability.
The practical shift is that compliance stops being a once-a-year scramble and becomes a quarterly habit — which is easier when the software pulls from records you already keep.
One engine, VAT and Income Tax
The plumbing behind MTD is the same across regimes: the Government Gateway connection, the fraud-prevention headers HMRC requires, the digital-link discipline, and a named person approving each submission. That's why Qgentic MTD treats VAT and Income Tax as two rulebooks on one engine — VAT is live today, and the Income Tax quarterly updates and the HMRC tax calculation run on the same connection. If you already file VAT through Qgentic, adding Income Tax is configuration.
Qgentic's Income Tax support covers self-employment and property quarterly updates, the HMRC tax calculation and the year-end final declaration. New Income Tax registrations begin with a shadow quarter while HMRC's pause on production access for new Income Tax filing software stands. As with VAT, we don't describe the product as "HMRC-recognised" until our directory listing completes.
Qgentic MTD runs VAT today and Income Tax (ITSA) on the same engine and the same Government Gateway connection.
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