Getting to grips with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax with Rebecca Benneyworth

At the Intuit QuickBooks Get Connected 2026 in London on March 5th, in front of a packed audience, Rebecca Benneyworth MBE BSc, Chartered Accountant (FCA) and Tax Consultant, delivered a practical, step-by-step presentation on what it actually feels like to run MTD for ITSA in practice.

Making Tax Digital is a hot topic in the accountancy world. Changes in how your clients report Income Tax are starting in 2026 — and preparing now can ensure that launch goes smoothly.

Thankfully, Rebecca has a wise word or two to share on the matter, having successfully implemented MTD for IT for two clients in 2024-25. She has also enrolled additional clients in the 2025-26 MTD testing phase since then. As an external contributor to the HMRC MTD programme board since 2016 (and a QuickBooks whiz), Rebecca is ready to help you prepare for the incoming changes to Income Tax self-reporting. 

Whether you couldn’t make it in person or want a read-up, we’ve got the details so you can deliver top-tier MTD for Income Tax services and understand the reality of MTD for IT. 

MTD for IT: the new way to report Income Tax

Instead of one annual self-assessment tax return, landlords and sole traders who adhere to the new MTD for IT rulings will send “quarterly updates of their income and expenses to HMRC directly from their MTD for IT compatible software.” 

This means submitting quarterly updates, followed by an End of Period Statement and a Final Declaration. 

Who needs to follow MTD for IT rules?

Donning her “green jacket, just to show [she’s] on message”, Rebecca talks about “who’s got to do [MTD for IT]”. She boils it down to “people who are self-employed and have property income”. You don’t need to follow MTD for IT if it’s “not reasonably practicable for you to use digital tools to keep records or electronic communications. And there are religious exemptions.” You will need to contact HMRC in the event of any exclusions or exemptions, even if they’re pre-existing.

How is MTD for IT changing?

One big difference with MTD for IT is that, when the tax is calculated, it’s done by HMRC, and must be submitted using HMRC-recognised MTD-compatible software.

Regarding tax returns, Rebecca advises building a “…parallel between MTD and what you’ve been doing up until now, when you get a bit confused,” if you’re thinking about deductions or additions, such as pensions. 

For landlords, you’re looking at SA 103, SA 105, and SA 106 gross income, £50,000 or over for the 25-26 tax year, down to £30,000 or over in the 26-27 tax year. For sole traders, the same applies to qualifying income. Rebecca advises that, on income, “The deciding year is 24-25. Forget everything else...unless they have no self-employment and no property at all.” 

Doing MTD for IT for real

Rebecca signed the first client up to run with the new MTD pilot in April 2024, after being approached by HMRC to test the scheme — “I said yes,” Rebecca quips, “…and I broke it.” She wrote a diary, detailing what the process felt like, and sent it off to them. “I’ve been doing this for 10 years.” 

Who better, then, for a live demo? Here, Rebecca takes us through some of the steps you’ll need to take to service MTD for IT for your clients.

First things: Get an agent services account

Many of you reading will already have an Agent Services Account (ASA). This is separate from what the HMRC calls your legacy account (where you’ll see self-assessment, corporation tax, and PAYE, etc.) 

On your agent services account, ensure it knows who your clients are by linking your agent code for Self-Assessment. If you’re unsure, Rebecca advises clicking the ‘Add Existing Self-Assessment Authorisation’ to your agent services account. If it says you’ve already added this agent code, you’re good to go.

On MTD for IT Authorisation

If you’re authorised for Self-Assessment, you don’t need any reauthorisation — MTD for IT will call you the ‘Main Agent’. 

If you’re separately doing the book and filing the quarterly update, but not doing the tax return, you are a ‘Supporting Agent’ and will need to be authorised by going through the ASA. You can do this by clicking ‘Ask a Client to Authorise You’.

Signing clients up for next year

Eligible clients will need to be signed up, and while it’s not required, Rebecca advises that “It’s a good idea if you do.” Add a business name while you’re signing your client up, assuming they have one — especially if they have multiple trades.

To get started, you’ll need your clients:

• Name

• Date of Birth

• National Insurance Number

You’ll do this through the ASA. You’ll also need to confirm you have compatible software. 

Three-year lock-in

“Once you’re in, as determined by your 24-5 return, as long as you’ve got a relevant activity, you are in until April 29.” That’s to say that, if a sole trader also owned property, but lost their sole trading business, they would still be required to send MTD for IT for three years.

Testing vs. Mandation

Rebecca recommends signing up for the MTD for IT testing period, 2025-26, to get a sense of it before mandation in 2026-27, when MTD for IT will no longer be optional for many sole traders and landlords. “Most of you are scared of the actual tax returns bit,” Rebecca says, “It might be worth putting one person in on the current year, because then you can test the year-end bit later on in the summer […] even if you put yourself in for the current year [to understand the process].” 

Handling multiple trades

“Back to that thought of putting a name on the trades,” Rebecca says, “if I’ve got three trades in QuickBooks, they’ll all be separate QuickBooks licenses. I’m going to submit three updates a quarter, the same as I’d submit three SA103s. Three trading pages. Three updates.” The intent is that, when submitting each update, Rebecca can determine which one’s which. Property income will be in its own section.

Rebecca demonstrates this with her own side hustle on screen — even though she admits she didn’t “sell a sausage” at a recent sale. Thankfully, her QuickBooks demonstration is more reliable than the weather that day. 

With the name filed in, she clicks save and continue. With that, the first sign-up is complete.

The next step: MTD for ITSA Software

Rebecca describes MTD for IT software as “talking” to HMRC and “a handshake between your [MTD for IT] software that you’re going to use to file and your agent services account.” It’ll require you to sign into your ASA once every 18 months.

On HMRC's back-end, if you want to look at your client, you’ll need to use the 10-digit UTR — a Unique Taxpayer Reference. Currently, there is no client list — though Rebecca has delivered feedback, and it may be incoming.  Once you find your client, you should be able to see any overdue updates, including filing obligations. 

HMRC’s platform and keeping records

“Keep digital records,” Rebecca advises, “spreadsheets and bridging software are perfectly fine. Bank feeds are going to be the easiest and quickest way to get it done.” Bank feeds are an automatic data import/connection tool to help enable HMRC MTD compliance and are included in QuickBooks. “Information about each transaction, if you’re using a bank feed, all you’ve got to do is add the analysis.”

QuickBooks will map your charter of account to the HMRC headings, which you can review when it’s time to file. 

Daily bookkeeping

Rebecca guides users to “Forget quarters…I don’t care whether [clients] log in at 10 o’clock at night when they finally got the kids to sleep, as long as they keep on top [of the bookkeeping].” By the end of the month, Rebecca says she “wants that bank up to date” as it’s “much easier to get that query sorted if you’re doing it on a weekly basis.” 

Doing the Tax Return & Updates

In her example, Rebecca has three trades — to do her tax return, she produces a report for each. She goes into QuickBooks and then into ‘Income Tax’, then into a client’s 2025-26 self-assessment summary. On the far side, QuickBooks shows what updates are due, so you always know what’s required before submission.

Amending details

Sometimes, mistakes happen. In the early days, Rebecca had put pension contributions under ‘Other Expenses’. “When I filed that, my pension contribution was treated as a deductible expense in my account.” But with MTD for IT, it was an easy fix. “I can look and see which chart of accounts goes where on HMRC.” If you want to change one of them, just change the ‘Detail Type’.

Submitting the tax return

With MTD for IT on QuickBooks, you can update to a certain quarter or submit everything that has been processed. This is a permanent choice for that tax year, which means if year-to-date was selected, you would need to file year-to-date for the rest of the year. 

On the QuickBooks reporting page, you can download a CSV or PDF as required at the bottom of the page. Otherwise, select year-to-date and click submit. Once you’re set up, Rebecca reckons the entire process will take “two minutes, tops.”

Get started with QuickBooks

Ready to get started with QuickBooks? Learn more about MTD for IT today and get ahead of the change for you and your clients. Make MTD for IT effortless — join QuickBooks today.

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