What is a digital journey?
A founding principle of the government’s Making Tax Digital push is that accounting data must enter into a digital journey.
In an ideal situation, this means the accounting data (known as “records”) should be digitised as soon as it is created, or created within software so it’s already digital (e.g. issuing an invoice from within your accounting software).
The data must remain in the digital domain for the lifetime of its use within the accounting records. This includes its submission to HMRC as part of a tax return, and also storage after this for the mandatory period (e.g. five years in the case of Income Tax records).
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HMRC signed me up for MTD for Income Tax. What should I do now?
From September 2026, HMRC will sign up taxpayers who are required to use MTD for Income Tax but haven’t registered for it.
