Making Tax Digital from April 2026: what UK self-published authors have to do

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax became compulsory on 6 April 2026 for UK sole traders and landlords whose qualifying income is over £50,000. If you self-publish as a sole trader and your 2024 to 2025 Self Assessment return showed more than £50,000 of gross income from self-employment and property, you should already be keeping digital records and your second quarterly update is due on 7 November 2026. The threshold falls to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028, so a full-time indie author turning over £20,000 or more will be inside the scheme by April 2028.

The figures and dates here are from HMRC's own guidance on GOV.UK, which we read on 1 November 2026. Nothing here is tax advice for your situation; it tells you what the rules say so you know what to ask.

Who is in, and when

HMRC's eligibility page gives three stages, each tested on the return you filed for the year two before:

Qualifying income is turnover, not profit. HMRC's page on working it out says it is your total self-employment and property income before expenses. For an author that means every KDP, Kobo, Apple, Google, IngramSpark and Draft2Digital payment, every direct sale from your own site, speaking fees, editing or formatting work for other authors, Patreon or course income, and any rent from a property you let. It does not include a salary from a day job paid through PAYE, dividends, pensions or your share of a partnership. If you sell direct, for example through the Indie Author Toolchest where you are the seller of record, those sales are your turnover too, so keep that payout record alongside your retailer reports.

Take an author who earned £31,000 in KDP royalties, £9,000 from wide retailers, £6,500 from direct ebook and signed paperback sales and £5,500 from editing in 2024 to 2025. That is £52,000 of qualifying income, so Making Tax Digital applied from 6 April 2026 even though the profit after editing, covers, advertising and travel was well under £40,000. An author on £28,000 of turnover is outside until April 2028 unless the next return crosses £30,000.

What you have to do

HMRC's guide for the first year sets out four things:

1. Sign up. You need to be registered for Self Assessment and to have filed a return in the last two years. HMRC said in August that it would start signing up people who had not done so themselves from September 2026.
2. Keep digital records. Each entry needs the date, the amount and the category, using the same categories as the Self Assessment return. You only need digital records for self-employment and property income; other income is added at the end of the year. Spreadsheets are allowed if bridging software links them to HMRC.
3. Send quarterly updates. Each one is the cumulative total of income and expenses by category since 6 April, generated by your software. No accounting adjustments are needed, and an update is still required for a quarter with nothing in it.
4. File a final return. You still submit one tax return a year and pay by 31 January. For the 2026 to 2027 year that is 31 January 2028.

The deadlines on the standard tax-year basis are 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, covering 6 April to 5 July, 5 October, 5 January and 5 April respectively. You can choose calendar quarters instead, which run 1 April to 30 June and so on, with the same deadlines. HMRC's quarterly updates page has both tables.

Penalties

HMRC's penalties page says there are no penalties for missing a quarterly update deadline in the 2026 to 2027 tax year. From the 2027 to 2028 year, each missed update or return deadline earns one point, reaching four points brings a £200 penalty, and every further miss adds another £200. You can only pick up one point per deadline however many businesses you run. Late payment is penalised separately: 4% of the tax outstanding at day 15, another 4% at day 30, and interest at 10% a year from day 31. Payments on account are not subject to those penalties.

How it is going so far

HMRC said on 23 July 2026 that more than 864,000 sole traders and landlords were in scope for the first deadline. On 12 August it reported that over 570,000 had signed up and more than 436,000 had sent a first update. That leaves a large number who should be in and are not, and HMRC began enrolling people itself in September.

What this means for an author's year

Royalties arrive in lumps. KDP pays 60 days after the month of sale, some wide stores pay later, and collecting-society money comes once or twice a year. Because the quarterly updates are cumulative totals rather than a tax calculation, a lumpy quarter does not change what you owe; it only changes what you report when. The one real change is habit: you can no longer leave the bookkeeping until January. Logging each payout and each cover or advertising invoice when it happens is the whole job, and much of the compatible software will import your bank feed and do the categorising for you.

Making Tax Digital is about income tax and has nothing to do with VAT, which has its own rules and a separate £90,000 registration threshold. If you sell ebooks from your own site, our VAT article covers that side. And if you are working out whether your writing income is likely to cross £30,000 next year, how much a self-published author can make gives the published survey ranges.

What to do this week

1. Look at your 2024 to 2025 return and add up gross self-employment and property income. Over £50,000 means you should already be in. Then do the same for the return you are about to file for 2025 to 2026: over £30,000 means you start on 6 April 2027.
2. If you are in and have not signed up, do it before HMRC does it for you, and pick compatible software using the GOV.UK software finder. Free options exist for simple affairs.
3. Get the 7 November 2026 update in, even though there is no penalty this year, so that the habit is set before points start in April 2027.
4. If you think you are exempt, for example because you cannot reasonably use digital tools, apply to HMRC rather than assuming; you must still file a Self Assessment return either way.