MTD for ITSA Delayed Until 2026

In a statement made by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Victoria Atkins MP, the timetable for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment will once again be delayed.

The mandation of MTD for ITSA is now planned to be introduced from April 2026, with businesses, self-employed individuals, and landlords with income over £50,000 mandated to join first.

MTD for ITSA Notices: HMRC’s Atomic Kitten

HMRC recently released the much-anticipated MTD for ITSA Notices, a document that TaxCalc has long been campaigning for and were promised early sight of six months ago – a promise that never quite came to fruition.

When first published back in July 2018, the clarity provided by the equivalent MTD for VAT Notice 700/22 was a welcome breath of fresh air, clarifying many outstanding points in relation to functional compatible software, digital links and the use of spreadsheets. It contained examples, diagrams and clear explanations of what was legislative, and hence came with the force of law, and what was HMRC guidance or recommendation. 

The spreadsheet is dead, long live the spreadsheet

In 2015, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced the biggest change to the UK tax system since the introduction of Self Assessment, as he declared “the death of the annual tax return” accompanied by “a revolutionary simplification of tax”. Neither has yet to be delivered but, if you look past the headlines and rhetoric, HMRC’s Making Tax Digital programme is less about making tax digital and more about making bookkeeping digital.

New penalty regime: points mean prizes (for HMRC)

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has confirmed that their new points-based penalty regime will come into effect from 1 January 2023 and will apply to both Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT as well as MTD for Income Tax Self Assessment (ITSA). Their stated aim is to make penalties simple, fair and effective but, as the arguably illustrious ageing rocker, Meat Loaf, might say, “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad”.

MTD legislation day: The BIG reveal

The full MTD regulations have been made public for the first time today. Until now, we have only had an early draft of the regulations to work with and it is fair to say that there were some glaring holes in that draft document – particularly in relation to partnerships, basis periods and when taxpayers could enter or leave the MTD regime. 

We have been waiting a long time for those draft regulations to be updated and our tax experts are now pouring over the contents to disseminate the fine detail.