Finalise your Income Tax position

How to submit your Self Assessment tax return while volunteering to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

Once you have made all the adjustments to your business income and expenses, you will need to finalise your Income Tax position for the year.

You must send HMRC information on personal income sources that you have, such as savings or dividend income, before you finalise your Income Tax position.

Once you have told HMRC about all of your taxable income for the year, you can submit your tax return.

When you submit your tax return, you will declare that:

  • the information you have provided is correct and complete
  • you have finalised your Income Tax position for the tax year

Using compatible software

You can submit your final tax return through your Making Tax Digital for Income Tax compatible software if either:

  • you’re able to submit data on all of your personal income sources through your software
  • you do not have any personal income sources to declare

Using HMRC online services

For the remainder of the 2024 to 2025 tax year and the upcoming 2025 to 2026 tax year, it will not be possible to use your HMRC online services account to submit your personal income sources. This is to help us test what the best design is for users.

If your software does not currently support the submission of your personal income sources, you should check whether your software provider will be adding this to your compatible software.

If not, you can either:

  • choose alternative or additional compatible software that will support the submission of your personal income sources
  • contact the Making Tax Digital for Income Tax dedicated support team for guidance

When to finalise your Income Tax position

You must submit your tax return by 31 January following the end of the relevant tax year. If you miss the submission deadline, then you will be liable for a late submission penalty. Once the penalty point threshold is reached, then this becomes a financial penalty.

The information provided will then be used to generate your final Self Assessment tax bill for that tax year.

If you do not pay your Self Assessment tax bill by the relevant deadlines, you may need to pay a late payment penalty. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will not change the way you pay tax or the dates payments are due.