HMRC’s Hated Digital Regime Lies in Ruins: Only 4% of Taxpayers Have Signed Up – And the Taxman Is Panicking

Listen up, fellow sufferers of the UK tax racket. While you were busy trying to keep your business afloat, HMRC quietly dropped a bombshell to the Public Accounts Committee: just 18,000 poor sods had bothered to sign up for their shiny new Making Tax Digital (MTD) income tax regime. That’s a pathetic 3.8% of the 864,000 self-employed souls and landlords they’re targeting from 6 April 2026.

HMRC have since briefed the press that the number has “risen” to 30,000. Thirty thousand. Out of nearly three-quarters of a million. That’s still only about 4%. Four percent! The rest of you – the sane 96% – are apparently too busy running actual businesses to play happy families with the taxman’s latest digital leash.

This isn’t a “slow start”. This is outright rejection.

What Exactly Is This Hated Regime?

For those still blissfully unaware (lucky you), MTD for Income Tax means the end of the simple annual Self Assessment for anyone pulling in more than £50,000 from self-employment or property income (based on your 2024/25 return). From April:

• You must keep digital records – no more scruffy spreadsheets or shoeboxes.
• You must file quarterly updates – four times a year, not once.
• You must use only HMRC-approved software that talks directly to their system.
• Then, of course, the usual end-of-year declaration to tie it all up with a nice little bow of extra admin.

HMRC have been bombarding people with letters, running “voluntary” testing (where 20,000-odd quarterly updates have apparently been submitted), and telling everyone it’s “straightforward” and “helps reduce errors”. Translation: “Please just roll over and make our lives easier while we make yours a living nightmare.”

The Cost? Your Time, Your Money, and Your Sanity

HMRC’s own figures admit an average one-off hit of £280–£350 to get set up, plus £110–£115 every year thereafter. That’s the official lowball. In reality, plenty of sole traders and landlords who currently DIY their tax will now be forced to shell out for proper software subscriptions – some “free” versions come with heavy restrictions, others will cheerfully sting you for hundreds a year.

And for what? So HMRC can watch your income and expenses in real time, like some creepy Big Brother with a calculator. Quarterly reporting doesn’t make tax simpler – it makes compliance four times more painful. It’s not about accuracy; it’s about control. Easier audits, faster penalties, more data to feed their risk engines.

Remember, this is the same HMRC that has form for multi-billion-pound IT disasters. The same department that can’t even answer the phone without putting you on hold for three weeks. And now they expect 864,000 of Britain’s hardest-working people – the ones actually creating jobs and paying the bills – to trust them with yet another half-baked digital fantasy?

The Taxman’s Spin Is Laughable

Their latest press release bleats that “thousands of sole traders and landlords have already joined” and “more than 20,000 quarterly updates” have been submitted in testing.

Well, congratulations. Out of 864,000 targeted, you’ve managed to persuade roughly the population of a small village. The rest of us have seen through the con. We’ve read the small print. We’ve seen the petitions racking up signatures demanding this nonsense is stopped. We know that “no immediate fines” in the first year is just code for “we’ll fine you later, once we’ve got you hooked”.

This Is Taxpayer Rebellion in Action – But If You Must Comply, Here’s the Least-Worst Kit

Only 4% uptake with weeks to go until the supposed launch? That’s not teething trouble. That’s a full-scale revolt by people who’ve had enough of being treated like cash machines with legs.

The self-employed and landlords already shoulder more than their fair share – higher National Insurance, energy bills through the roof, endless red tape. Now HMRC wants to turn your bookkeeping into a part-time job. No wonder the silent majority is voting with its feet (or rather, refusing to lift them towards the sign-up button).

HMRC will no doubt blame “lack of awareness”, or “software issues”, or “misinformation”. The truth is simpler: people can smell a bad deal from a mile off. This regime isn’t “making tax digital” – it’s making tax more expensive, more intrusive, and more hated than ever.

So here’s the message to HMRC from the 96%:

We’re not signing up because we don’t trust you. We don’t need quarterly digital shackles. And we sure as hell aren’t going to thank you for the privilege of paying for the software that lets you spy on us more efficiently.

Scrap it. Delay it indefinitely. Or watch the chaos unfold in April when the real numbers come in and the excuses start flying.

The ball’s in your court, HMRC. But judging by the last few decades, you’ll probably just kick it into the long grass and send out more letters.

In the meantime, the rest of us will be over here, running our businesses, paying our taxes (reluctantly), and – if forced – grudgingly picking one of the above tools to stay out of the penalty trap.

Because this digital disaster? It’s already dead on arrival.

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