Here's answers to the top 10 practitioner questions on MTD for Income Tax—and your quarterly action plan—that will make April 2026 manageable. The post Your 2026 resolution: Sign-up your first MTD clients before April’s chaos appeared first on Sage Advice UK.

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Your 2026 resolution: Sign-up your first MTD clients before April’s chaos

Here’s answers to the top 10 practitioner questions on MTD for Income Tax—and your quarterly action plan—that will make April 2026 manageable.

MTD for Income Tax isn’t a technical tax issue. It’s about workflow.

If you understand this and treat it like an operational project, rather than compliance event, you’ll stay calm next April.

This is what chartered accountant and long-time HMRC collaborator Rebecca Benneyworth discussed at the Bookkeepers Summit, and it’s what we discuss in this article.

Here’s what we cover:

MTD: The operational reality

Benneyworth did something unusual for an MTD keynote session: she skipped the theory entirely.

She skipped the slides about legislative history. She ignored the abstract timelines. She didn’t open with “MTD is coming” or show a single chart about digital transformation.

Instead, she went straight to the operational reality accountants and bookkeepers will face in 2026: The real-world decisions, system limits, client behaviours and workflow bottlenecks that HMRC guidance rarely spells out.

Benneyworth has spent close to a decade touring the UK with HMRC, answering hundreds of questions from firms trying to navigate MTD for Income Tax.

If treat it like an operational project, rather than compliance event, you’ll stay calm next April.

Everyone else will be queuing for HMRC support, battling mismatched authorisations, or scrambling to onboard clients who left everything until the last minute.

What Benneyworth shared wasn’t theory. It was the distilled reality of practitioner experience.

The 10 questions she gets asked most often, the hidden operational risks inside the agent services account, the new easement for jointly owned property that finally makes sense, and the three-month window between now and April that will determine whether your 2026 is manageable or miserable.

This is your road map for staying out of the chaos.

1. Who needs to join MTD for Income Tax in April 2026, and how is the income test really calculated?

The single most common point of confusion is also the easiest to fix.

Practitioners still over complicate the £50,000 threshold. They bring in salary, pensions, dividends, and investment income. These are income types HMRC doesn’t even look at for this test.

But once you strip the noise away, mandation rests on just two numbers.

The truth: only two income types matter:

• Self employment income (SA103)
• Property income (UK + foreign) (SA105 / SA106)

That’s it.

Benneyworth calls them mandated income types. HMRC calls them relevant income. But they are the same thing. And understanding them early shapes your entire 2026 workload.

How the test works:

• You look at the 2024/25 tax return.
• You total the gross income on SA103 + SA105/106—the figures HMRC can actually see.
• If that combined figure is over £50,000, they are in MTD from April 2026.
• If it’s below, they’re not, regardless of what their salary or dividends look like.
• Once in, they’re typically in for three years unless all mandated income sources cease.

What you should do now:

• Build an internal list: every client with SA103 or SA105/106 pages.
• Add a column for “expected 2024/25 mandated income”.
• Segment clients as: “in from April 2026”, “likely in 2027/28”, or “out”.
• Train staff to answer this question the same way,

We only look at your self-employment and property income on the 24/25 tax return. That’s what determines whether you’re in.

Rebecca Benneyworth, Rebecca Benneyworth & Co

This removes most of the noise you get from clients comparing themselves to friends or reading generic online guidance.

2. What about partnerships?

Partnership is one of the most misleading words in the whole MTD for Income Tax conversation.

Clients use it casually, HMRC uses it technically, and it’s easy to mix the two.

Getting this distinction right now prevents you from incorrect scoping your 2026 work—or overlooking clients who are in scope when they think they’re not.

Where partnerships stand today:

• Partnerships are not included in the 2026 MTD mandation rules.
• They will come in later. Benneyworth’s informed guess: around 2030.
• Until then, partners report their share of partnership income via the SA104, as now.

Property “partnerships”—many clients describe joint lets as partnerships. HMRC usually does not.

Quick filter:

• Does it have a UTR (Unique Taxpayer Number)?
• Do you file a partnership return (SA800)?

If yes, then it’s real partnership and therefore not relevant for MTD in 2026.
If no, then it’s jointly owned property and it’s in scope for MTD if income is high enough.

What you should do:

• Clearly tag each client: real partnership (SA800) vs joint property.
• Don’t assume “property partnerships” are out just because the word is used casually.
• Plan 2026 workloads around individuals with SA105, not partnership SA800s.

3. Can clients avoid MTD by incorporating or forming partnerships?

A few accountants and bookkeepers still hope so. Benneyworth’s view was blunt: no, and please don’t try.

Some clients still believe MTD can be sidestepped with a quick incorporation or a “paper partnership.”

The reality: these routes create more admin, more risk, and no genuine escape from future mandation.

Why it doesn’t work:

• Incorporation adds more admin, more identity verification, more filings, and more risk.
• Partnerships will be included in MTD in the near future.
• Your client’s bookkeeping burden doesn’t vanish; it simply moves.

What to advise: push the conversation toward digital record readiness, not legal restructuring:

• “If the bookkeeping is clean, MTD is easy. If it’s not, incorporation won’t save you.”
• “Entity changes should be driven by commercial and tax reasons—not to dodge quarterly updates.”

4. What do I need before I can start filing quarterly updates?

Filing quarterly updates isn’t simply about software. It’s actually an authorisation and infrastructure question.

The two systems HMRC runs (Caesar and the Enterprise Tax Management Platform, or ETMP) can trip you up if your Agent Services Account isn’t correctly linked.

This is where you could lose weeks unnecessarily, so clarity here is critical.

Your two essentials before filing quarterly updates:

• Authority to act for the client. This confirms you’re permitted to manage their tax affairs.

• An Agent Services Account (ASA). This is a special HMRC account, linked to your old Agent Online Services login, that lets you access MTD features and client lists.

How the systems connect:

• The old system (SA (Self Assessment), CIS, PAYE, etc.) runs on HMRC’s Caesar platform.
• The new system (MTD, supporting-agent functionality) runs on ETMP.
• Linking the logins allows ETMP to “see” your existing client list.

If you already do the client’s Self Assessment returns, you become main agent without needing new authority.

If the year end return is handled by another accountant, you request authority as a supporting agent (via a digital handshake).

Supporting agents can sign clients up and file quarterly updates without displacing the main agent.

What you should do now:

• Log into your ASA and check whether your SA credentials are linked.
• Sort out supporting-agent workflows where tax advisers are involved.
• Flag clients with outdated DOB/NI info – this will block the digital handshake later.

5. How do I sign clients up for MTD, and in what order?

Sign-up is where the April bottleneck will happen.

Benneyworth was clear about this: “There’ll be nearly a million people trying to sign-up next April—and most of them will wait until the last minute.”

Your ability to stagger sign-ups, triage clients and test early will determine how much pressure your firm feels in 2026.

Here’s how sign-up works. Inside ASA you should:

• Go to MTD for Income Tax
• Select “Sign-up your client”
• Enter name, DOB, NI number
• HMRC creates the client’s MTD account on ETMP
• From that point, you can submit quarterly updates

You shouldn’t wait. Early sign-ups give you:

• Time to fix mismatches (wrong DOB, NI, name spellings).
• Access to HMRC support while queues are manageable.
• A chance to test year-end functionality before it becomes mandatory.

What to do now:

• Build a staged sign-up schedule:
  • digital-ready clients first
  • high-risk clients next
  • behavioural laggards last
• Create an internal sign-up checklist.
• Start testing the sign-up process now with a handful of safe clients.

6. How many submissions will I be making—and how do penalty points work?

The number of submissions per client is straightforward once you map it to the existing Self Assessment structure. Where you might lose clarity is on penalty points, especially the “one point per quarter” rule that’s easy to miss.

Understanding this now allows you to build a predictable compliance calendar before clients start missing deadlines.

Good news: There’s a grace period, previously referred to as the “soft landing” in the days of MTD of VAT being introduced back in 2019.

This means no penalty points will be issued for late quarterly updates during this initial transition. This gives you and your clients valuable time to adapt without the pressure of immediate penalties.

Submissions mirror the Self Assessment “shape”, in that:

• Each trade has its own quarterly update
• Property income is one quarterly update
• Foreign property, currently included within SA106, is its own quarterly update

So, a client with:

• one trade = one quarterly update
• one trade + property = two updates
• three trades = three updates

It’s the same structure as SA103s today.

Penalty points is where there’s confusion:

• You cannot get multiple penalty points in one quarter.
• One quarter = one potential point, no matter how many submissions you miss.
• It’s the pattern of non-compliance across the year that matters.

What to do now:

• Map the “submission count” for every MTD client.
• Identify which clients will need consolidation workflows.
• Build a quarterly compliance calendar with internal cut-off dates.
• Educate clients early about the penalty model. Consistency matters more than perfection.

7. How does jointly owned property work under MTD?

Joint property is the area that caused the most confusion, until HMRC introduced a long-awaited easement.

This change removes the unworkable requirement for every expense to be digitally split all year.

Getting comfortable with the new income-quarterly/expenses-year-end structure will save you huge time.

The easement (co-designed by HMRC + practitioners) is as follows. During the year, each joint owner:

• Records and submits their share of the income only

At year end they must:

• Gather all property expenses
• Allocate them between owners
• Submit the final expense update in one go

This avoids the unworkable scenario where every £3 sink strainer has to be individually split and recorded digitally by each owner.

Important limits are as follows:

• Applies ONLY to jointly owned property
• Does NOT apply to property someone owns outright
• Clients with larger portfolios should be pushed toward specialist landlord software

What to do now:

• Add an “easement flag” to your practice list.
• For 1–2 property owners: plan to use the easement.
• For multi-property landlords: recommend specialist software early.
• Educate clients clearly: “Quarterly = income only. Year-end = expenses as one combined update.”

8. What software or spreadsheets can I use for MTD?

MTD is flexible on tools, but not on process.

You can mix software, spreadsheets, and bridging, as long as digital links exist. The real challenge is avoiding a “tech long tail” where every client uses something different.

The simple rule is that you can use the following as long as digital links exist:

• Cloud accounting software
• Desktop software
• Spreadsheets
• Specialist landlord tools
• Mixed stacks (e.g., one provider for quarterly, another for year-end)

Copy-paste of totals is not allowed, as per digital linking rules.

What this means for your stack:

• You don’t have to standardise on a single system.
• You can mix bookkeeping software, bridging tools and professional tax software.
• You can test year-end functionality with multiple products during 2025.

What to do now:

• Audit every client’s current software
• Define 2–3 “MTD-approved stacks” your firm will support
• Avoid long tail complexity where every client uses something different
• Ask vendors about their MTD year-end roadmap—don’t assume it exists yet

9. What actually happens at the MTD year end?

For many bookkeepers and accountants, the year end under Making Tax Digital (MTD) is the stage that brings the most uncertainty and concern.

While the workflow itself will feel familiar to anyone used to Self Assessment, the tools and processes are evolving, so it’s natural to have questions about how everything fits together.

Understanding the intended sequence, from quarterly updates to final adjustments and client approval, will help you approach the transition with confidence and clarity.

The intended process is as follows:

1. Quarterly updates lead to cumulative totals for the year
2. Year-end adjustments could be as follows:
   • Journals
   • Capital allowances
   • Accruals/prepayments
3. Add other income (employment, pensions, dividends, etc.)
4. Client approval
5. Finalisation of the digital records to tax return submitted

There is no fifth “quarter”. Year-end is a crystallisation of the year’s data.

If you sign-up at least one client before March 2026, you get to test the year-end process in a real environment before it matters.

What to do now:

• Choose one to three pilot clients.
• Map your year-end workflow: which parts happen in bookkeeping software, which in tax software.
• Standardise your client approval process.
• Train staff so the change feels evolutionary, not revolutionary.

10. What should I be doing now and as 2026 progresses?

If there was one consistent theme in Benneyworth’s advice, it’s this: start now, in small steps.

The next 18–24 months matter more than the deadline. Your key actions should be:

• Build your MTD client population list.
• Segment and prioritise who you’ll move first.
• Fully set up your ASA and authorisations.
• Choose your software stack per client type.
• Train internal staff using pilot cases.
• Use 2025 to run at least one end-to-end rehearsal.

Early preparation is the single biggest predictor of a smooth 2026.

Leaving this until next April guarantees long HMRC queues, unforced errors, and a miserable first year.

Your 2026 3-month plan to get MTD-ready

Benneyworth’s final point was the most important one: the firms that spend time preparing now will find April 2026 manageable. The ones that wait will drown.

Here’s what that looks like in practice, if you start in 2026:

January 2026:

• Build your MTD client list (SA103 + SA105/106 only).
• Link your Agent Services Account to your old login.
• Sign-up 2–3 pilot clients while HMRC queues are quiet.
• Run at least one full end-to-end test with a real client.

February 2026:

• Train your team using the pilot cases as templates.
• Finalise your software stack and document internal workflows.
• Start staged sign-ups: digital-ready clients first, high-risk next.

March 2026:

• Scale up sign-ups before the rush hits.
• Build your quarterly compliance calendar with internal cut-offs.
• Communicate the change to clients before HMRC does.
• The deadline is April 2026. It’s rapidly approaching.

Benneyworth’s closing message cut through the noise: “MTD doesn’t overwhelm well-prepared firms—it only overwhelms late ones.”

Final thoughts

Mandated income rules are clear once you strip away the distractions.

Partnerships and joint property aren’t as complicated when you separate HMRC’s definitions from everyday language.

Authorisation and ASA hygiene matter more than software choice. Early sign-ups give you room to fix mismatches before the rush.

Year end is familiar, but only if you’ve tested your tools.

By investing now, by building lists, segmenting clients, cleaning ASA records, and running real tests with pilot cases, you’ll enter April with confidence, clarity, and control.

MTD for Income Tax is a workflow project.

Treat it like one.

Start early. Test early. Scale calmly.

And make January count.

The post Your 2026 resolution: Sign-up your first MTD clients before April’s chaos appeared first on Sage Advice UK.

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