Making tax digital; but not yet

Antonio_Rodríguez (1636-1691) portrays Augustine keeping paper records

Out of copyright!

AURELIUS Augustinus is widely quoted as demanding "Please God, make me good, but not just yet!" The government of the United Kingdom is following the lead of the man who became Saint Augustine in its approach to tax returns. It has repeatedly proclaimed that we self-employed will all be forced to use as-yet-barely-existent computer software to file tax returns four times a year, instead of doing it online once a year. Now it has postponed the deadlines again.

A better translation of what appears in Augustine's book Confessions is likely "Oh, Master, make me chaste and celibate - but not yet!" The relevance of this to His Majesty's Government we leave as an exercise for the reader.

The current guidance - updated on 19 December with little fanfare - is:

You need to follow the requirements for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax if you are self-employed or a landlord from:

6 April 2026 if you have an annual business or property income of more than £50,000

April 2027 if you have an annual business or property income of more than £30,000

Note that there is no mention of a deadline for those with an annual income below £30,000. The announcement states that previously the deadline was "for customers with a total gross income over £10,000 from self-employment and property in a tax year" - so we deduce that the £50,000 and £30,000 threshholds are for turnover - total income including deductible expenses. We're checking, though, and awaiting further revisions with interest.