Making Tax Digital starts in 24 days — are you ready? (UK devs)

#freelancing #career #productivity #tax

If you're a UK freelance developer earning over £50,000, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax goes live on 6 April 2026. That's 24 days from now.

This isn't optional. Miss it and you're looking at penalty points that stack up to automatic fines.

What changes

Quarterly submissions instead of one annual return
Digital record-keeping — spreadsheets are fine, but they must feed into HMRC-compatible software
End of period statement at year-end

Who's affected right now

Threshold	When
Income over £50,000	April 2026 (NOW)
Income over £30,000	April 2027
Income over £20,000	TBC

If you're not sure where you fall, we built a free MTD Readiness Checker that takes 2 minutes.

What you need to do before April 6

Check if you're affected — MTD Readiness Checker
Choose MTD-compatible software — FreeAgent, Xero, QuickBooks, or bridging software if you want to keep spreadsheets
Sign up for MTD via your Government Gateway account
Set up quarterly submission dates in your calendar
Ensure your records are digital from 6 April onwards

The penalty system

MTD uses a points-based system:

Late submission = 1 point
Hit the threshold (4 points for quarterly) = automatic £200 fine
Points expire after 24 months of compliance

We built a MTD Penalty Calculator so you can see exactly what different scenarios cost.

Cost estimate

MTD-compatible software typically costs £12-35/month. Our MTD Cost Calculator breaks down the real annual cost including software, time, and accountant fees.