Government defends Making Tax Digital amid concerns over older taxpayers

The government claim Making Tax Digital works “well for those who need it”, despite ongoing criticism over the scheme. The controversial scheme came into force in April this year, with landlords earning more than £50,000 required to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC using authorised MTD-compliant software. Landlords earning between £30,000 and £50,000 will join the scheme in April 2027. Can apply for an exemption In a written parliamentary question, Liberal Democrat MP James MacCleary asked: “what assessment has the government made of the potential impact of Making Tax Digital on those over-70?” In response, Labour MP Dan Tomlinson said: “The government has worked with taxpayers, representative bodies and software developers to ensure Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax works well for those who need to use it. “The government has worked with the software industry to ensure a wide range of options are available to suit different needs and budgets, including low-cost and free software, supporting those with the simplest affairs. Many products are designed for users who manage their own tax affairs or those new to digital tools. “Where a taxpayer cannot use MTD for Income Tax, for example due to age or disability, they can apply for exemption from the MTD requirements.” No advantage to Making Tax Digital As previously reported by Property118, despite the government claiming Making Tax Digital will help landlords, an accountant says this is not the case. Simon Misiewicz previously told Property118: “There’s no real benefit beyond maybe streamlining some of the work you already do, does it help with tax returns and submissions? The truth is, I can’t see how. “There’s no advantage for the individual in submitting quarterly returns, because HMRC doesn’t do anything with them until the end of the year. You don’t pay your taxes any earlier, and there is no real cash-flow benefit for the government”. The government admitted in the Making Tax Digital impact assessment that landlords earning £50,000 could incur an average transitional cost of £285 and an average annual additional cost of £115.

8:01 AM, 11th June 2026, 3 weeks ago 10

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Making Tax Digital Landlord News

The government claim Making Tax Digital works “well for those who need it”, despite ongoing criticism over the scheme.

The controversial scheme came into force in April this year, with landlords earning more than £50,000 required to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC using authorised MTD-compliant software.

Landlords earning between £30,000 and £50,000 will join the scheme in April 2027.

Can apply for an exemption

In a written parliamentary question, Liberal Democrat MP James MacCleary asked: “what assessment has the government made of the potential impact of Making Tax Digital on those over-70?”

In response, Labour MP Dan Tomlinson said: “The government has worked with taxpayers, representative bodies and software developers to ensure Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax works well for those who need to use it.

“The government has worked with the software industry to ensure a wide range of options are available to suit different needs and budgets, including low-cost and free software, supporting those with the simplest affairs. Many products are designed for users who manage their own tax affairs or those new to digital tools.

“Where a taxpayer cannot use MTD for Income Tax, for example due to age or disability, they can apply for exemption from the MTD requirements.”

No advantage to Making Tax Digital

As previously reported by Property118, despite the government claiming Making Tax Digital will help landlords, an accountant says this is not the case.

Simon Misiewicz previously told Property118: “There’s no real benefit beyond maybe streamlining some of the work you already do, does it help with tax returns and submissions? The truth is, I can’t see how.

“There’s no advantage for the individual in submitting quarterly returns, because HMRC doesn’t do anything with them until the end of the year. You don’t pay your taxes any earlier, and there is no real cash-flow benefit for the government”.

The government admitted in the Making Tax Digital impact assessment that landlords earning £50,000 could incur an average transitional cost of £285 and an average annual additional cost of £115.

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Tags: HMRC quarterly updates, income tax reporting, Making tax digital, MTD, MTD exemption

Comments

Mick Roberts Read Full Bio

Member Since June 2013 - Comments: 3274 - Articles: 81

10:45 AM, 11th June 2026, About 3 weeks ago

It’s an extra thing on top of another 176 extra things that reducing supply for tenants.
Granted, majority will manage.
I have Hammock and it’s brilliant. Took me 2 years though to sort out the time to set it up, and it was some late nights with Benefit tenants 4 weekly rents paying backwards etc.
But now set up, fantastic.
But for some, it’s one extra thing too many when they don’t want the house anyway. And only keeping it for the tenant.

1 Report Comment Reply
Ryan Stevens

Member Since January 2024 - Comments: 389

3:44 PM, 11th June 2026, About 3 weeks ago

If they can explain to me who these taxpayers are that ‘need’ MTD,

5 Report Comment Reply
Jo

Member Since June 2015 - Comments: 341

6:15 PM, 11th June 2026, About 3 weeks ago

I’ve been using Landlord Vision for about 3 years and I tried Hammock alongside it for a year (as it is much cheaper). I wanted to like Hammock but I just couldn’t. It does it’s job and would be fine for a lot of people but for my portfolio it required a huge amount of manual entry. The customer support is good but not as accessible as it could be. Their chat bot drove me nuts.
Landlord Vision isn’t perfect but it is a lot less time consuming and considerably more useful. A really nice feature is that it can send rent invoices to tenants. Until I tried it I hadn’t realised how useful that feature would be.
In a lot of respects it all seems a bit pointless and had added quite a bit of expense. Spreadsheets were easier and less glitchy. I don’t know where they get the idea it’s only £115 per year. Hammock would be £300 for a smallish portfolio. Landlord Vision varies depending on how many features you want but for a portfolio of 14 houses it’s costing me over £800 per year for a mid range product that isn’t perfect. LV knows there is a fault in the way it handles mortgage payments if one co owner has paid down their chunk of the mortgage but they refuse to rectify the system to cope with that eventually, on the basis it doesn’t effect many people. Presumably my accountant will be able to sort it out on the end of year submission?

The silver lining is whatever software you use is a tax deductible expense, so the government are effectively paying either 40% or 60% of the cost.

1 Report Comment Reply
Simon Lewis

Member Since June 2026 - Comments: 1

8:24 PM, 11th June 2026, About 3 weeks ago

Not even sure Hmrc will use the figures at the end. Pointless waste of money. George Osborne’s insane idea

2 Report Comment Reply
Mick Roberts Read Full Bio

Member Since June 2013 - Comments: 3274 - Articles: 81

6:09 AM, 12th June 2026, About 3 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Ryan Stevens at 11/06/2026 – 15:44
Ha ha

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Mick Roberts Read Full Bio

Member Since June 2013 - Comments: 3274 - Articles: 81

6:12 AM, 12th June 2026, About 3 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Jo Westlake at 11/06/2026 – 18:15
Yes Hammock was a lot of manual work at beginning.
Crikey LV not cheap then. Yes I’ve paid about £700 for the year and I sold loads of houses before joined Hammock

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Richard

Member Since May 2024 - Comments: 24

11:00 AM, 12th June 2026, About 3 weeks ago

This is just a total nonsense.HMRC have not worked with anyone to do anything! If they really knew what they were doing they would have a dedicated spreadsheet template on the HMRC website that was free and could be used to enter your figures. Failing that we should be able to log our excel spreadsheets that we are probably using anyway. Why should we have to pay for a third party provider to log our figures in, have to get used to their systems, which are all different, and give our financial details to them? Just another chaotic load of bureaucracy.

17 Report Comment Reply
Sally Robinson Read Full Bio

Member Since February 2024 - Comments: 83

12:17 PM, 12th June 2026, About 3 weeks ago

Hi everyone,
Being useless at IT , and over 70, I have written to HMRC for an exemption over 3 months ago….no reply as yet? If I don’t get one before beginning of July I will do my best to muddle through, but I will be very annoyed if I get penalised for doing things wrong!
I have told them. I’m useless!

Besides, this could not have arrived at a worst time for HMRC…. when many will be on holiday in July and August and numbers of staff will be down…. so who planned that?

I foresee chaos on the horizon?

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Grumpy Doug

Member Since January 2016 - Comments: 241

1:09 PM, 12th June 2026, About 3 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Sally Robinson at 12/06/2026 – 12:17
Hi Sally, if you can manage a simple excel spreadsheet, you should go with a bridging solution. Ie, you fill in a standard template and it gets uploaded by the provider to HMRC. I’ve signed up with mytaxdigital and they do a nice simple template that should suit most small landlords

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Judith Wordsworth Read Full Bio

Member Since January 2015 - Comments: 1513 - Articles: 1

10:09 AM, 13th June 2026, About 3 weeks ago

I’m still doing annual SA paper returns.
Hate IT and damn glad I’m now out of the PRS.

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