Automatic Registration: Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

19th August 2026

The first Making Tax Digital for Income Tax filing deadline was on 7^th August. HMRC have released some early statistics. They have also confirmed plans to automatically register taxpayers required to complete quarterly submissions from 26/27 who have not yet registered.

HMRC Statistics

HMRC have announced that more than 570,000 taxpayers are now signed up to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. They’ve also announced that over 436,000 taxpayers have been able to successfully submit quarterly updates.

Automatic Registration

HMRC previously estimated that around 864,000 taxpayers would be required to join Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from April 2026. They have confirmed that from September 2026, they’ll begin signing up taxpayers that were expected to be registered from 26/27 onwards, but have not yet done so. Taxpayers with qualifying income exceeding £50,000 are expected to be registered, unless they meet qualifying criteria for exemption. It appears that the automatic registration will be a staged approach. However, HMRC has not yet provided any guidance on the order in which affected taxpayers will be registered.

Impact

It’s important that if you receive a letter from HMRC notifying you of automatic registration that it is acted upon. You will be unable to submit your tax return until all four quarterly submissions are filed.

No penalties will be incurred for 26/27 quarterly submissions. Penalties will however still apply to late submission of the 26/27 tax return.