Correspondence

Edition 7: Making Tax Digital for Income Tax — software developer newsletter

Published 30 September 2026

Welcome to the September edition of the Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax software developer newsletter.

This edition includes:

• API lifecycle changes
• live service updates
• GOV.UK guidance updates
• HMRC’s planned MTD communications
• developer engagement, feedback and key dates

Software developers have a critical role in delivering Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and helping customers manage their tax responsibilities with confidence.

As we move forward, we encourage you to continue testing your products, reviewing your customer journeys and sharing feedback with us so that, together, we can deliver simple, reliable and accessible software for customers.

As the service continues to evolve, these updates are intended to help you plan ahead, support your users, and understand where HMRC is making improvements.

API lifecycle updates

Developers should be aware of the following upcoming API lifecycle changes and review their integrations and migration plans ahead of the following API lifecycle milestones.

API	Version	Retirement date	Required action
individuals-capital-gains-income-api	v2	16 October 2026	migrate to v3 (released on 24 March 2026)
individuals-reliefs-api	v2	16 October 2026	migrate to v3 (released on 16 December 2025)
individual-losses-api	v6	scheduled for deprecation on 1 February 2028 with retirement planned for 1 August 2028	Customers filing their return for 2025 to 2026 through software should use v6. Customers filing their return for 2026 to 2027 through software should use v7. Plan to migrate to v7 before v6 retires.

Deprecated API versions remain available for a limited period before retirement, but new subscriptions cannot be created against them. We encourage developers to review their integrations and migrate to supported API versions ahead of these lifecycle milestones.

MTD for Income Tax roadmap update

The Making Tax Digital for Income Tax roadmap was updated on 15 September 2026 and now includes planned deliveries through to September 2027.

Developers are encouraged to review the roadmap regularly to help plan for upcoming changes and understand what is currently being considered for future releases.

The roadmap deliveries are provided for planning purposes and are subject to change as we progress through future release cycles.

Actions to take

Developers should:

• review the API versions currently used in your software and check for dependencies on deprecated or retiring APIs
• migrate to the latest supported versions where available
• plan migrations ahead of published deprecation and retirement dates

Delaying migration may increase the risk of:

• integration failures
• service disruption for users
• last minute remediation work

Live service updates

Confirmed live service issues (LSIs) and investigation updates continue to be shared through the weekly LSI log, distributed each Friday. Before reporting a new issue, review the latest LSI log and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax guidance.

If the issue remains unresolved, raise it through your digital relationship manager, if you have one, or your MTD account manager by emailing makingtaxdigital-softwarevendors@hmrc.gov.uk. Ensure the LSI template is completed with all relevant information.

To support the investigation, ensure you provide:

• a detailed description of the issue
• any error messages received
• relevant screenshots showing where the process is failing

LSI spotlight — helping customers avoid obligation issues 

A number of recent referrals have highlighted a problem encountered by a small number of customers related to reporting period changes and quarterly submissions.

Where a customer changes their reporting type, for example between standard and calendar quarterly reporting, it is important that they wait until the change is fully reflected in their software before submitting a quarterly update.

Submitting too soon can result in reporting obligations not appearing as expected or updates being submitted against the wrong reporting period.

To help customers avoid these issues, encourage them to:

• wait until reporting changes are visible in their software before submitting a quarterly update
• check that reporting obligations appear as expected before making a submission
• be aware that a reporting type cannot be changed after the first quarterly update has been submitted for that tax year

Taking these simple steps can help reduce avoidable obligation-related issues and ensure updates are submitted against the correct reporting period.

Service availability — planned downtime

Plan accordingly and check the API platform status page regularly for service availability updates.

GOV.UK guidance updates

Recent updates

Guidance for customers signed up by HMRC

HMRC has published guidance explaining what customers need to do if they have been signed up to MTD for Income Tax by HMRC.

This guidance may help developers support customers who have questions about their MTD obligations and next steps.

MTD for Income Tax guidance

Updates have been made to the MTD for Income Tax guidance, including:

• changes relating to qualifying income
• the customer sign-up journey
• changes in circumstances

These updates are intended to help customers better understand whether they need to use MTD for Income Tax, what actions they need to take and how to manage changes to their circumstances.

Guidance improvements informed by user feedback

HMRC continues to improve guidance based on feedback from customers, agents and software developers. Current areas of focus include:

• quarterly updates
• exemptions
• changes in circumstances
• improved signposting between MTD and Self Assessment guidance
• additional support for Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) customers

Developers may wish to review the latest MTD for Income Tax guidance and update customer support materials where appropriate.

HMRC’s planned MTD communications

Two MTD marketing campaigns will run during October and November 2026 to help raise awareness and support customers at different stages of their MTD journey.

Quarterly update deadline campaign

This campaign will run from early October to 7 November 2026.

It will remind customers in the ‘£50,000 and over’ income cohort about the upcoming quarterly update deadline.

£30,000 to £50,000 awareness campaign

This campaign will run from mid-October to late November 2026. It aims to increase awareness and understanding of MTD among customers with income between £30,000 and £50,000.

The latest campaign assets, including customer-facing materials and supporting resources, are available on the campaign resources hub

MTD for Income Tax customer overview video

HMRC has published a short YouTube video on MTD for Income Tax. It explains:

• who MTD applies to
• quarterly updates
• end of year reporting obligations
• penalties
• the benefits of the changes

Developers may find this useful when supporting customers and aligning customer communications with HMRC messaging. The video can also be shared through websites, help centres, onboarding journeys and training materials to help customers better understand what MTD for Income Tax means for them.

Get involved, feedback and support

Developer engagement and key dates

Stay connected and keep up to date with the latest MTD for Income Tax developments through upcoming forums and events.

Key upcoming dates:

• technical forum: 20 October 2026
• quarterly updates (Q2): 07 November 2026

Help shape future newsletters

We are always looking to improve our communications with software developers.

Please take a few minutes to complete our Software Developer feedback survey and let us know what content you would find most useful in future editions.

Developer queries

To help us manage and respond effectively, send all developer queries to SDSTeam@hmrc.gov.uk.

LSIs should continue to be reported through makingtaxdigital-softwarevendors@hmrc.gov.uk using the agreed LSI process.

Next edition

The next edition is planned for October 2026.

Thank you for your continued engagement and support. We look forward to sharing further updates in the October edition.