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Landlords slow to sign up for Making Tax Digital as deadline nears

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Landlords slow to sign up for Making Tax Digital as deadline nears

With less than a month to go until Making Tax Digital comes into force, only 5% of taxpayers, including landlords, have signed up, according to a story in The Telegraph.

Under the controversial scheme, from April 2026 landlords earning more than £50,000 will be required to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HM Revenue & Customs using authorised MTD-compliant software.

Landlords earning between £30,000 and £50,000 will be brought into the scheme in April 2027.

People do not understand MTD

Despite HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) ramping up its campaign to promote Making Tax Digital, sources told The Telegraph that only around 50,000 people, just more than 5% of the estimated 864,000 taxpayers who need to register this year, have signed up so far.

Over the next three years, nearly three million taxpayers are expected to join the scheme.

Rachael Griffin, tax and financial planning expert at Quilter, told The Telegraph that many taxpayers, including landlords, still do not understand how Making Tax Digital will work.

She said: “The low sign‑up figures show that many people still do not understand what quarterly reporting will mean for them, and that gap in understanding risks becoming a pinch-point as we approach implementation.

“The risk is a late scramble among those with mixed income sources who realise too late that the new reporting cycle is not optional.”

No real benefit

As previously reported by Property118, despite the government claiming Making Tax Digital will help landlords, an accountant says this is not the case.

Simon Misiewicz previously told Property118: “There’s no real benefit beyond maybe streamlining some of the work you already do, does it help with tax returns and submissions? The truth is, I can’t see how.

“There’s no advantage for the individual in submitting quarterly returns, because HMRC doesn’t do anything with them until the end of the year. You don’t pay your taxes any earlier, and there is no real cash-flow benefit for the government”.

The government admitted in the Making Tax Digital impact assessment that landlords earning £50,000 could incur an average transitional cost of £285 and an average annual additional cost of £115.

The post Landlords slow to sign up for Making Tax Digital as deadline nears appeared first on Property118.

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