MTD for Income Tax: Capacity Planning Playbook for UK Practices (2026–2028)

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax changes the shape of a practice's year. From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 must keep digital records and send HMRC quarterly updates, followed by a final declaration. The threshold falls to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028. Each step brings a new group of clients into quarterly work.

For most practices, the question isn't whether they can do the work, but how many extra hours it will take and when. A client who used to need one Self Assessment return a year now needs four quarterly updates, a final declaration and, often, help moving from spreadsheets to software.

This playbook helps you answer that question with your own numbers. You'll segment your client list by MTD start date, estimate the hours for each group, and see where your team will run short between 2026 and 2028 — in time to price, hire or outsource.

What's inside

• Client-segmentation spreadsheet: enter self-employment and property income and it works out each client's MTD start date
• Hours model for quarterly updates and final declarations, by record-keeping quality
• Capacity plan for the 2026, 2027 and 2028 cohorts
• Pricing worksheet for moving clients to quarterly fees
• Client communication checklist and engagement letter points

Excel spreadsheet, works in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers.

Read how many extra hours MTD will add, or see how we run MTD and Self Assessment for UK practices.