Sign up your client for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
Use the online service to sign up your client voluntarily for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax if you’re an agent.
What Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is a new way of reporting income and expenses if your client is a sole trader or landlord. You’ll need to:
- use software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
- keep digital records of your client’s business income and expenses
- send us quarterly updates
- submit a tax return and your client must pay the tax due by 31 January the following year
Who should sign up and when
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is currently voluntary. You may be able to sign up your client to help us test and develop the service. From 6 April 2026, it will become mandatory in phases based on your client’s total annual income from self-employment or property.
You should find out if and when your client needs to sign up.
If your client will need to sign up in future, you can either:
- use this service voluntarily now — for all your client’s self-employment and property income sources
- continue sending a Self Assessment tax return as normal
If you’re not an agent, there’s a different way to sign up as an individual for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
Who can sign up voluntarily
We’ll ask you some questions when you sign up your client. This will confirm if they’re able to sign up voluntarily.
You can sign up your client voluntarily if all of the following apply:
- their personal details are up to date with HMRC
- they’re a UK resident
- they have a National Insurance number
- they have submitted at least one Self Assessment tax return, or you have done this on their behalf
- they’re up to date with their tax records — for example, they have no outstanding tax liabilities
- their accounting period aligns to the tax year — it must run from 6 April to 5 April
Your client can also use an accounting period that runs from 1 April to 31 March, if the software they choose supports this. You or your client must:
- select calendar update periods in the software before the first update is made
- make an adjustment at the end of the first tax year — so that their income and expenses from 1 April to 5 April are included in their tax return
If you sign up your client, during testing they will not be able to:
- claim carry back of losses
- change their accounting period
- change their accounting method
Who cannot sign up voluntarily
You cannot sign up your client voluntarily if they:
- have a High Income Child Benefit Charge
- have a payment plan with HMRC
- are a partner in a partnership
- claim Married Couple’s Allowance
- claim Blind Person’s Allowance
- are currently, or are going to be, bankrupt or insolvent
- are an MP, minister of religion or Lloyds underwriter
- have income from being a foster carer or being in a shared lives scheme
- have income from a trust
- have income from a jointly owned property
- have income from a furnished holiday let
- are subject to a compliance enquiry
- use ‘averaging’ or other arrangements because their profits vary between years — for example, because they’re a farmer, writer or artist
What you’ll need
You’ll need to get software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. When choosing software, always check with the software providers to make sure it meets your needs.
You’ll need an agent services account — this is different to your HMRC online services for agents account.
You’ll need your client’s:
- full name
- date of birth
- National Insurance number
If your client has multiple income sources, you’ll need to sign up each one for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
For each of your client’s income sources, you’ll need:
- their business start date or the date they started receiving property income
- the accounting method such as cash basis accounting or traditional accounting
- the tax year your client would like to start using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
If your client is a sole trader, you’ll also need:
- their business name — this is the name they use on their invoices
- their business address
- the nature of their business (their trade)
Get your client’s permission
You must talk to your client before you sign them up. You should tell them:
- what you’re signing them up to
- what it means for them
- that HMRC’s new penalties will apply to them if they miss deadlines for submitting their tax return or paying their bill
We’ll write to your client to confirm when they’ve become liable for these penalties.
After getting your client’s permission
You need to sign in to your agent services account and follow the steps in your account to ask your client to authorise you.
If your client has already authorised you for Self Assessment in your HMRC online services for agents account, you need to copy this authorisation into your agent services account. If you do not copy the authorisation over, the sign up process cannot be completed.
If you are authorised by your client for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, you can submit their Self Assessment tax returns on their behalf. The client must check the information in their tax return is correct and let you know, before the tax return is submitted.
How to sign up your client
You’ll need the Government Gateway user ID and password you got when you signed up for an agent services account.
Online services may be slow during busy times. Check if there are any problems with this service.
After you’ve signed up
Find out more about using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
You or your client still need to send a Self Assessment tax return for the tax year before they started using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
Get help
Help and support for Making Tax Digital.
Contact your software supplier if you need help creating business records or sending updates.
If you have another query about Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, contact Self Assessment: general enquiries.
Updates to this page
Published 10 February 2020Last updated 26 July 2024 + show all updates
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Information added to confirm that you need to sign up each income source for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax if your client has multiple sources of income. Information added about what you need to do if your client has already authorised you for Self Assessment in your HMRC online services for agents account.
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Information for users who want to voluntarily sign up now has been updated as you can now use the sign up service instead of a software provider. Information about who can and cannot sign up voluntarily has been updated.
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Welsh translation added.
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The date for helping to test and develop Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has been extended to 6 April 2026.
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The steps to take and what you will need before using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax have been updated. You can check if you can voluntarily sign up your client now.
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Information on what you'll need and before you sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has been updated.
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Information on what to do after you've signed up your client has been updated.
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A Welsh translation has been added.
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Information in the 'Before you start' section has been updated with what you need to do before you can sign up a client for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
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Information has been updated under 'before you start' to advise ways your client can authorise you through your agent service account.
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Welsh translation has been added.
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First published.