Making Tax Digital for Income Tax as an agent: step by step
If you're an agent, find out how to sign up your clients for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and use it on their behalf.
This guide is also available in Welsh.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is a new way for sole traders and landlords to report their income and expenses to HMRC.
From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords must use it if their total annual income from self-employment and property is over £50,000.
You or your client will need to use software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax to:
- create, store and correct digital records of their self-employment and property income and expenses
- send their quarterly updates to HMRC
- submit their tax return and pay tax due by 31 January the following year
Who needs to sign up
You will need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026 on behalf of your client if all of the following apply. Your client:
- is an individual registered for Self Assessment
- gets income from self-employment or property, or both
- has qualifying income of more than £50,000 — read more about what qualifying income is and what is included
Follow our 7 steps to help you understand what you need to do before, during and after you sign up your client for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
1. Work out your client’s qualifying income
Find out what is included in your client’s qualifying income for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. This will help you check if they need to sign up and use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026.
2. Find out if and when your client needs to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
Check if your client needs to use this service to report their self-employment and property income. You can use our online tool to find out when they need to start.
3. Create an agent services account
You will need an agent services account to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Find out how to create an agent services account with HMRC if you do not have one.
4. Add your client authorisations
Your existing client authorisations for Self Assessment are recognised for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
Check if the authorisations have been added to your agent services account, and use Self Assessment agent codes to add any authorisations you need to.
You will still need to sign up each client to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax using the sign up service.
5. Get compatible software
HMRC does not provide software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
Find out about the software options available for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and how to choose the right software for your client’s needs.
6. Sign up your client for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
Find out what tasks you need to complete before you sign up your client.
Remember, you will need to be authorised to act on your client’s behalf before you sign them up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
Use the online service to sign up your client for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
7. Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
Find out what you need to do after you have signed up your client and the different tasks you and your client need to do over the tax year.
These include creating and storing digital records, sending quarterly updates, submitting their tax return using compatible software, and what to do if their circumstances change.
Updates to this page
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The introduction has been updated to focus on agents with clients who must use Making Tax Digital from April 2026. A new step has been added to support agents to add or update authorisations for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. The software step has been updated to confirm that HMRC does not provide software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
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Information about who must sign up for Making Tax Digital has been updated.
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Added introduction to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, re-ordered steps to make it clear agents need to sign into their agent account and added descriptions for each step.
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A new step 1 has been added to work out your client’s qualifying income. The steps to check if your client needs to use this service and when your client can sign up have been combined into step 2.
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First published.