HMRC to Automatically Sign Up MTD Taxpayers From September

 

HMRC to Automatically Sign Up MTD Taxpayers From September – Because Voluntary Compliance Was Too Soft

Just when you thought Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD ITSA) couldn’t get any more heavy-handed, HMRC has decided to stop asking nicely.

From September, the taxman will start automatically signing up eligible taxpayers for MTD. No more polite invitations. No more “please join when you’re ready”. If your qualifying income (self-employment and/or property) is over the threshold, they’ll just enrol you whether you like it or not.

This is the same department that still can’t answer the phone without putting you through an hour of hold music, takes years to process refunds, and harasses 93-year-old terminally ill veterans over returns they’ve already filed. Yet somehow they’ve found the time and resources to force every eligible person into their digital quarterly reporting regime.

Let’s remind ourselves what this actually means:

• You’ll need compatible software
• You’ll have to keep digital records all year
• You’ll submit quarterly updates instead of one annual return
• Miss a deadline and the new penalty points system starts ticking
• All while HMRC’s own systems remain a creaking, unreliable mess

The soft landing and voluntary period were always a mirage. Now the gloves are off. From September they’ll start dragging people in automatically so that by April 2027 (and the lower £30k threshold) the net is fully cast.

This is classic HMRC: demand more data, more frequency, more compliance from you, while their own customer service, processing times and basic competence remain an absolute shambles. They’re happy to use AI and force automation on accountants, but when it comes to their own digital services they still can’t get the basics right.

Tax does have to be taxing.

But automatically signing people up to quarterly digital reporting while the department itself remains incapable of answering a simple phone call or processing a refund in under two years? That’s not taxing — that’s digital dictatorship dressed up as modernisation.

Get ready. The quarterly grind is coming whether you want it or not.

 

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