MTD Sign-Up Service Down 10 to 13 July: Act Before the 7 August Deadline

Why this matters right now

HMRC has confirmed that its sign-up services for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax will be unavailable from 5pm on Friday 10 July 2026 until 9am on Monday 13 July 2026. During that window, sole traders and landlords cannot sign themselves up, and agents cannot sign up their clients.

A weekend of planned maintenance would not normally be news. The timing is what makes it matter: the first ever MTD quarterly update deadline falls on 7 August 2026, less than four weeks after the service comes back. Anyone who was mandated into MTD from 6 April 2026 but has not yet signed up is now working with a shrinking runway, and this weekend is a dead zone in the middle of it.

Key facts at a glance

Background: who has to be in MTD from April 2026

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax went live on 6 April 2026. If your combined self-employment and property turnover was more than £50,000 in the 2024/25 tax year, you are legally required to keep digital records and send HMRC a quarterly summary of your income and expenses through MTD-compatible software. Signing up is not automatic: even if HMRC has written to you, you (or your agent) still need to complete the sign-up process before your software can submit anything.

The threshold drops in stages over the next two years, so each April pulls in a new wave of taxpayers:

Not sure whether you are caught? Our MTD Scope Checker gives you a yes-or-no answer in under a minute, and the MTD Deadline Tracker maps out every date that applies to you.

The deadlines the downtime sits in front of

Quarterly updates for 2026/27 are cumulative and follow the standard tax-year quarters. These are the dates now in play for everyone mandated from April 2026:

The first period (6 April to 5 July 2026) has already closed, so the numbers for the 7 August submission are fixed. What stands between many people and that submission is exactly the process that goes offline this weekend.

Example 1: the sole trader who left it late

Sadia runs a plumbing business that turned over £62,000 in 2024/25, so she has been in MTD since April. She has software ready but never completed sign-up, and her plan was to sort it out with her accountant on Friday evening after work. That plan now fails: from 5pm on Friday 10 July, neither she nor her accountant can sign her up until Monday morning.

The fix is simple but requires acting a day earlier. If she signs up by Thursday 9 July, her accountant can test a submission the same week, leaving almost four clear weeks before the 7 August deadline. Pushed to Monday 13 July it still works, but every buffer day she loses matters if the software or her records throw up a problem.

Example 2: the landlord who thinks MTD is not her problem

Elena collects £55,000 a year in rent across three properties and files one Self Assessment return each January. Because her 2024/25 property income was above £50,000, she was mandated into MTD from 6 April 2026 whether she noticed or not. Her position four weeks out from the first deadline should look like this: pick MTD-compatible software (free options exist for simple cases), sign up before Friday afternoon or after Monday 9am, then submit the April-to-July figures well before 7 August. Our MTD Quarterly Record Organiser helps her sort twelve months of rent and expenses into the right quarterly buckets.

What happens if you miss 7 August

Late quarterly updates are handled by the points-based penalty system. Each late submission earns one penalty point, and once you reach four points you receive a £200 fine, with a further £200 for every late submission after that until the points reset. One late update will not cost you money on its own, but with four submissions a year plus your final declaration, points accumulate faster under MTD than they ever did with one annual return.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Assuming an HMRC letter means you are signed up. It does not. Sign-up is a separate step you or your agent must complete.
• Waiting for the weekend to do it. This particular weekend, the service is off.
• Buying software but never connecting it. The software only works once your sign-up links it to HMRC.
• Forgetting Self Assessment still exists. Your 2025/26 tax return is still due by 31 January 2027, and the 31 July payment on account is unaffected by any of this.

Your action checklist

• Check whether you are mandated with the MTD Scope Checker.
• If yes and not signed up: do it before 5pm Friday 10 July or from 9am Monday 13 July.
• Get your 6 April to 5 July figures ready now; the Record Organiser can help.
• Submit the first quarterly update well before 7 August 2026.
• Estimate the tax you are building up with our Self Assessment Tax Calculator, and read the full MTD for Income Tax guide for everything else.

Sources

• GOV.UK: Sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
• GOV.UK: Sign up your client for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
• GOV.UK: MTD for Income Tax service availability and issues