Minns
    Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

    MTD for Income Tax, for every sole trader and landlord on your list.

    From April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 keep digital records and send HMRC a quarterly update. Minns puts each client's quarters on the board, chases the records in, keeps them digital in the books, and prepares the update's figures for the firm to submit.

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    Minns files VAT through HMRC's Making Tax Digital API today. Quarterly updates and the final declaration through HMRC's Income Tax API are the next piece of our HMRC work; until then the figures are prepared for the firm to submit in its recognised software.

    The deadlines board, on example clients. Each quarter's update date joins the client's other dates; the status is where the firm has got to.

    Why Minns

    Three things to know first.

    Four more deadlines per client
    Every mandated client brings four quarterly updates and a final declaration. The board carries them beside the VAT quarters, the accounts and the self assessment, so none of them is a surprise in the first week of August.
    Records chased before the quarter closes
    The agent drafts a chase to each client whose receipts and bank lines are still out as a quarter end nears, stepping up as the update date approaches. Clients send records through their portal, from their phone.
    Digital from the start
    The ledger is pulled from Xero, QuickBooks Online or Sage and held in the books engine, so the quarter's income and expenses are computed, not keyed. The update's figures are the books' figures.
    What Minns does

    The quarter, taken off your desk.

    • Who is in, and from when

      The firm marks each sole trader and landlord as in MTD for Income Tax, and the board carries their quarters from then. The thresholds below say who must be in from April 2026, 2027 and 2028; the books show each client's income against them.

    • The quarters on the board

      The four update dates and the final declaration for each mandated client, beside their other statutory dates, with a status: records requested, in, prepared, approved, submitted.

    • Chasers that know the quarter

      A chase drafted each morning for the clients whose records are out, in the firm's voice, naming the quarter and what is missing. Released by a person, never sent on its own.

    • Records in through the portal

      Clients send receipts and answer the agent's questions from their phone. Bank lines are explained in the books; what the agent cannot place, it asks about.

    • The update's figures, from the books

      The quarter's income and expenses by category, computed by the books engine from the ledger, with the lines that make them up. Prepared for a person to check and submit.

    • The year end, from the same books

      The final declaration's figures, the accounts for the sole trader or partnership, and the self assessment dates, all from the ledger that held the quarters.

      Submission through HMRC's Income Tax API is next on our HMRC work and not yet live.

    A client's first year

    In the order it happens.

    1. Now

      Mark who is mandated

      The firm checks each sole trader's and landlord's income against the thresholds, marks the ones who are in, and tells them. The quarters appear on the board the same day.

    2. Before 6 April

      Get the records digital

      Books connected for each mandated client, bank feeds on, the portal open so receipts arrive as pictures rather than in a carrier bag in January.

    3. Each quarter

      Chase, explain, prepare

      Chasers go out as the quarter end nears. Bank lines are explained and receipts matched in the books. The update's figures are prepared from the ledger for a person to check.

    4. By the 7th

      Submit the update

      Standard quarters end 5 July, 5 October, 5 January and 5 April, with the update due by the 7th of the following month. The firm submits in its recognised software; Minns marks the quarter done.

    5. By 31 January

      The final declaration

      The year's figures finalised from the same books, with the accounts and the other income, for the client to approve by name before the firm declares.

    The dates

    Who is mandated, and when, as HMRC has set it.

    Qualifying income is the gross income from self-employment and property together, before expenses, as shown on the self assessment return for the year two years before.

    FromWho must keep digital records and send quarterly updates
    6 April 2026Sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000.
    6 April 2027Qualifying income over £30,000.
    6 April 2028Qualifying income over £20,000, as the government has announced.
    Quarterly updatesFour a year, for the quarters to 5 July, 5 October, 5 January and 5 April, each due by the 7th of the following month. A client may elect calendar quarters instead.
    Final declarationBy 31 January after the tax year, in place of the self assessment return, with any other income and the claims and reliefs.
    PenaltiesPoints for each late update, a fine when the points reach the threshold, and the late payment penalties that apply to self assessment.
    Questions a practice asks first

    Straight answers.

    Does Minns submit the quarterly update to HMRC?
    Not yet. Minns files VAT through HMRC's Making Tax Digital API today, and the Income Tax API is the next piece of that work. Until it is live, the update's figures are prepared from the books for the firm to submit in its recognised software.
    Is Minns MTD-compatible software?
    For VAT, yes: returns are submitted to HMRC through the MTD API with the receipt kept. For Income Tax, the records and the figures are kept digitally in the books engine and the submission is the firm's, in its recognised software, until our Income Tax filing is live.
    How does Minns know which clients are mandated?
    The firm marks each client as in MTD for Income Tax, and the board carries the four quarterly updates and the final declaration from then. The books show each client's income, so the check against the thresholds is a look, not a search.
    What about partnerships and companies?
    General partnerships and companies are not in MTD for Income Tax yet. Their dates stay on the board as before: partnership returns, the CT600, the accounts.
    Where do the quarter's figures come from?
    From the client's ledger, pulled into the books engine through your connection. Income and expenses are computed by category from the lines the books hold, never keyed by the agent.

    Get the list ready before April.

    Tell us how many sole traders and landlords are on your books and which software they use. We mark who is mandated and put the quarters on the board.

    Talk to usSee the pricing