Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what are the benefits to HMRC and to affected taxpayers of requiring sole traders and landlords to quadruple the frequency and associated costs of their submissions to HMRC from annually to quarterly, starting in April 2026.

Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax quarterly updates are not the same as full tax returns. They are simple summaries of income and expenses. Software will automatically draw data from a taxpayer’s digital records, and, where these are up to date, the updates will be quick and easy to submit.

Quarterly updates will reduce errors by moving record-keeping closer to real time underpinning the £1.95bn of Additional Tax Revenue that MTD for Income Tax is expected to generate by 2029/30.

They also enable estimates of tax liability as well as nudges and prompts to support users to get their tax right. With records captured digitally in software, preparing the end-of-year return should be more straightforward, as the information needed is already available.