Getting Started
Your Government Gateway account must be registered for Making Tax Digital. If you have not yet registered, do that first. After you register it can take around 72 hours for HMRC's systems to update your status.
Guidance - Using This Site For Making Tax Digital
Overview
If you have previously submitted your tax return under Self-Assessment, it's likely that you will find it relatively easy to navigate this site, as filing under Making Tax Digital is not particularly different from filing under Self-Assessment.
The main difference is that, under Making Tax Digital, quarterly updates need to be submitted during the tax year, in addition to the year-end filing. Quarterly updates only cover business income, all other information is filed after the end of the tax year.
TaxUpdates can be used to file both the quarterly business updates, and year-end information. All functionality that HMRC provide in relation to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will be made available on this site.
Updates & Year End
When you are logged in to TaxUpdates, you will find two sections in the main menu - 'Updates' and 'Year End'. The updates section is the place to go to submit a quarterly business update, and the year-end section is the place to go for everything else.
Tax Year
Each time you login, the site will default to the current tax year. The year can be changed at the top of most pages while you are logged in, when you change the year the page will reload with relevant information from the selected year.
The earliest tax year available is 2025-26.
Tax Calculation
HMRC provide a 'live' tax calculation, which will update in real-time based on the information you submit. The latest calculation can be retrieved from HMRC at any time. It can be accessed at the top of most pages while you are logged in, by clicking on the link that says 'Tax Calculation'.
Light/Dark Mode
You can toggle between light and dark mode using the sun icon in the footer.
Quarterly Business Updates
Submitting a quarterly business update is very straightforward, however it may need a bit of setting up the first time you do it because updates need to be in the format required by HMRC. Once you have submitted one update, the process for submitting future updates should be quick and easy.
You can either adapt an existing spreadsheet, or use a provided pro-forma spreadsheet. Click on the headings below to expand them for more details.
HMRC Income & Expense Categories
Business income and expenses should be tracked in a spreadsheet and, at the end of each quarter, income and expense totals should be submitted to HMRC. Submitted income and expenses must be categorised using category names set by HMRC. Here are the HMRC categories:
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Click on the relevant business type above to view and copy the HMRC categories for your business. If you hover over a category in the list a text box will appear with a more user-friendly explanation of that category
Adapt An Existing Spreadsheet
If you already have a spreadsheet you use to record income and expenses, simply copy the HMRC categories shown above and paste them into a new sheet in your spreadsheet.
Ensure that the zeros in the 'Totals' column are replaced with the relevant values for your business, then submit the data in this sheet to HMRC at the end of each quarter.
Updates are cumulative, therefore totals for the whole of the tax year to-date should be submitted in each update.
Use A Pro-Forma MTD-Compliant Spreadsheet
Here are links to simple MTD-compliant spreadsheets which can be used or adapted. Guidance is given within each spreadsheet.
Self Employment | Self Employment With VAT | Uk Property | Foreign Property
How To Format Uploads
If you are using one of the pro-forma spreadsheets, follow the instructions in the spreadsheet to download data and submit it to HMRC.
Uploaded data must be in csv (comma-separated-values) format. To get a csv file from a spreadsheet, make sure you are in the sheet you want to download, then simply go to file->download->csv (or similar, depending on which spreadsheet application you use). Download the file to your computer, then upload the csv file to TaxUpdates to submit it to HMRC.
The file must have two columns, the first showing the category name and the second showing the total for that category. If you copy the categories from the 'HMRC Income & Expense Categories' section above and paste them into your spreadsheet they will be in the correct format.
Only the HMRC-defined categories should be used to classify amounts in your uploaded data. Column headers and unused categories are not required, but can be included.
Due Dates
The dates updates cover are:
- 6 April to 5 July, due 7 August
- 6 April to 5 October, due 7 November
- 6 April to 5 January, due 7 February
- 6 April to 5 April, due 7 May
Each update overwrites the data in the previous update, submitting information covering the period from the start of the tax year to the end of the quarter.
Year End
In the 'Year End' section of the site, you can:
- Make adjustments to business income
- Submit details of other income, such as employment income, bank interest, dividends etc.
- Submit details of capital gains and losses
- Claim tax reliefs
- Check and amend CIS deductions
- Make various disclosures and elections
Completing this section is very similar to completing a tax return under the Self-Assessment system.
HMRC provide a live tax calculation, which is updated each time information is added or updated. Once all relevant information for the tax year has been provided, a Final Declaration is submitted, in which you declare that the tax calculation reflects all of your income for the year and is complete.
The due date for submission of the Final Declaration is 31 January following the end of the tax year.