An accountant has issued advice to millions of Brits who are set to face the “biggest tax shake-up in years”. Liane Ranaboldo took to TikTok to clarify that those impacted could witness their lives becoming “much harder” from April 2026.

The advice concerns the government’s Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD for ITSA), which will see businesses and landlords with qualifying income maintain digital records and update HMRC each quarter using compatible software.

This means anyone who is self-employed, runs a business or rents out property will be affected. “From April 2026, you won’t just need to send one tax return a year anymore – you’re going to need to send five submissions,” Liane outlined in a video detailing the change.

These five comprise four quarterly updates plus a final declaration at the year end, when you would typically submit a final tax return in January. “[If you] mess it up or miss a deadline there are penalties on top of your tax bill to worry about,” Liane warned further.

MTD for ITSA will be introduced for individuals in two phases: from April 2026, for those with qualifying income over £50,000; and from April 2027, for those with qualifying income over £30,000.

Liane continued in a separate clip: “Here’s what HMRC are not making clear. They will be using your 2024 to 2025 tax return figures (up to April 5, 2025) to decide if you are in the first wave – based on income, not profit.

“Once your tax return is filed, they will write to confirm if you’re affected. But here’s the problem, if you leave your return filing until January 2026, you’ve only a few short months to prepare before the switch.”

Liane concluded with guidance: “So file early, get your books in order now. Do not leave it until January or you will be scrambling to get MTD ready.”

The government’s website further explains: “Making Tax Digital (MTD) will exploit the opportunities offered by digitalisation to make it easier for everyone to get tax right. Many other countries have already done this or have digital systems in development.

“Errors in handling tax affairs contribute to the tax gap — the amount of tax that is due but goes unpaid. The tax gap for Self Assessment businesses is around 18.5%, or £5 billion. Using software to keep digital records and make regular updates has been shown to reduce the potential for error and time spent making corrections, and thus support business productivity.”

Digitalising our service will bring customer benefits by:

• reducing the risk of unintentional customer errors
• saving them time when they come to submit their end-of-year tax return
• supporting wider productivity and less time managing paperwork through use of digital tools
• enabling HMRC to better tailor services to customers

Further information can be found here.