The three groups, and when each one starts
HMRC brings people in by the size of their qualifying income in the tax year before, tested against a threshold that is over a figure rather than at it. Exactly £50,000, £30,000 or £20,000 is not over the line. At the bottom end the rule is explicit: you are automatically exempt if your qualifying income is £20,000 or less. In between, say £25,000 in 2026-27, you are not exempt but you are not yet in scope either - your cohort simply has not started.
| Qualifying income | You start | Income from |
|---|---|---|
| over £50,000 | 6 April 2026 | 2024-25 |
| over £30,000 | 6 April 2027 | 2025-26 |
| over £20,000 | 6 April 2028 | 2026-27 |
What qualifying income means
Qualifying income is your total income from self-employment and property. It is the amount before expenses, also known as turnover, based on the tax return you submitted in the previous tax year. Add your self-employment income to your property income - where either comes from more than one source, add those too - and the total is what HMRC compares with the threshold.
HMRC reviews your Self Assessment return and checks your qualifying income each tax year, then writes to confirm that you need to use the service by the start of the next tax year. If no letter arrives, checking whether you need to use the service is still your responsibility.
Where you have more than one source of self-employment or property income, add them together before you test the threshold. Rental income of £25,000 plus self-employment income of £27,000 is £52,000 of qualifying income, which is over the £50,000 threshold.
What does not count towards the threshold
Several kinds of income are left out of the total altogether, however large they are.
- Employment income paid through PAYE
- Your share of profit from a partnership, as an individual partner
- Dividends, including dividends from your own company
- The State Pension and private pensions
- Qualifying care relief, basis period reform transition profits, and one-off transactions in UK land that fall in a single tax year
Landlords are in scope, including property-only landlords
You need to use the service if you are a sole trader or a landlord registered for Self Assessment and you get income from self-employment, from property, or both. A landlord with no trade at all is caught by the same thresholds.
All of your UK properties are treated as one UK property business, and all of your foreign properties as one foreign property business. If you own a property jointly, your share of the income counts, and if you are only told your share after expenses have been taken off, that is the figure HMRC assesses.
Being a landlord is not itself a ground for exemption. The two automatic exemptions most likely to apply to you are a qualifying income of £20,000 or less, and not having a National Insurance number before the start of the tax year. There are other automatic and temporary exemptions, some of which apply to an entity or a particular return rather than to you personally - see the exemptions guide for the full list.
HMRC signs people up itself
From September 2026, HMRC started signing up anyone who needs to use MTD for Income Tax for the 2026-27 tax year and has not signed themselves up. The sign-ups happen in stages over the following months, so a letter may arrive well after the point at which you would have chosen to sign up.
HMRC uses only the information it already holds about you, which may not include anything that has changed since your last tax return. If you think you should be using the service and you have not had a letter, sign up rather than wait for one.