Not signed up for Making Tax Digital yet? What to do

You can connect your HMRC account successfully and still find that HMRC has not signed you up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax yet. The app does not treat this as an error: it keeps every record, points you to GOV.UK to sign up, and lets you refresh once HMRC confirms.

What this means

Connecting to HMRC and being signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax are two separate things. You can finish the connection (see Connect your HMRC account) and HMRC may still report that your account is not signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. This is common, and the app is built to handle it calmly.

When HMRC reports this, the app does not block you or throw an error. It keeps all of your records and shows a friendly notice that links you to GOV.UK to sign up. You carry on recording, sign up with HMRC, then refresh.

Note: Whether you need to sign up, and by when, depends on your income and HMRC's rules. We do not state thresholds or dates here. Use the Making Tax Digital status checker, read the Making Tax Digital guide, or check with HMRC or your accountant.

Who this is for

Anyone on Free or MTD Lite who has connected HMRC and seen a message that they are not signed up for Making Tax Digital, or whose businesses have not yet been matched on the HMRC side.

What to do

1. Carry on recording as normal. Keep adding properties, self-employment businesses, income, and expenses. Nothing you enter is lost, and the app builds your quarterly figures automatically from the transactions you record.
2. Sign up with HMRC. Use the sign-up link on the status notice (or on the What's due page) to complete sign-up on GOV.UK.
3. Come back and refresh once HMRC confirms. Open Settings and go to the HMRC tab, then click Refresh from HMRC on the status banner (or Retry Lookup on the business panel). The app then re-checks your status with HMRC and links your HMRC income sources.
4. Still showing as not signed up? Use Reconnect. A connection made before your sign-up completed can carry an authorisation that predates the enrolment. Click Reconnect on the same Settings tab and approve the connection again on HMRC's site. The fresh authorisation picks up your enrolment.

Tip: Not sure whether you even need to sign up yet? Check the Making Tax Digital status checker before signing up, so you only do it when it applies to you.

Where you will see this

• What's due page (/tax/filing-obligations): if HMRC returns a not-authorised response for an income type, the page shows a notice that you are not signed up for Making Tax Digital, with a link explaining how to sign up. This page only appears in the menu once HMRC is connected (it sits in the tax section of the sidebar, either directly or inside More tax tools), so until then use the always-visible Deadlines. See Your deadlines and HMRC obligations.
• Dashboard: in place of your quarterly deadline and the quarter timeline, the dashboard may say HMRC is not showing any quarterly updates for you (with the next standard deadline, in general terms) or HMRC does not show you as signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax yet, with a link to What's due. Once you sign up and HMRC confirms, your deadlines come back within a day, or straight away after you use Reconnect in Settings.
• Status banner: on the Settings HMRC tab (/settings?tab=hmrc), the status banner shows a friendly HMRC hasn't signed you up for Making Tax Digital yet panel with a link to sign up on GOV.UK and a Refresh from HMRC button.
• Additional Income (/tax/income): when HMRC does not show you as signed up, the page may show HMRC couldn't confirm you're signed up for Making Tax Digital at the top, with a Sign up on GOV.UK button and an HMRC settings button, and the income types cannot be opened from the hub until HMRC confirms your sign-up. Their pages show the same message if you go to them directly. Any partnership drafts you saved are kept and come back once HMRC confirms your sign-up. See Additional income.
• Settings, HMRC tab (/settings?tab=hmrc): if HMRC did not return a matching business for your National Insurance number, you may see No UK Property Business found or SE businesses not linked to HMRC, each with a Retry Lookup button and a link to sign up with HMRC.

Keep recording in the meantime

Being unsigned up does not stop you using the app. Add and edit properties and businesses, record income and expenses, import a spreadsheet via CSV, and scan receipts if you wish. The app stores each entry as a recorded transaction in your account, so when HMRC signs you up your figures are already in place and ready to submit.

Important: There is no need to keep your figures in a separate spreadsheet while you wait. If you already have a spreadsheet, import it (each row is added to your records in the app) rather than holding totals outside it. See Your deadlines and HMRC obligations for how your due dates appear once you are signed up.

If something goes wrong

• What's due is missing from the menu. It only appears once HMRC is connected, in the tax section of the sidebar (either directly or inside More tax tools). Connect HMRC and it will appear there. The Deadlines page is always visible in the meantime.
• The What's due page still says you are not signed up for Making Tax Digital after you signed up. HMRC can take time to record a new sign-up. Click Refresh on the obligations page, or Refresh from HMRC on the banner, once HMRC has confirmed. If it still shows after that, use Reconnect on the Settings HMRC tab, because a connection made before sign-up completed needs a fresh authorisation to pick up the enrolment. Obligations appear after HMRC recognises your enrolment.
• No UK Property Business found or SE businesses not linked to HMRC in Settings. HMRC did not return a matching business for your National Insurance number (for example, you have not signed up yet, or a name does not match). Click Retry Lookup to re-pull, or use the link to sign up with HMRC, then retry.
• Not sure whether you should be signed up at all. This is a tax-rules question, not an app setting. Use the Making Tax Digital status checker or Making Tax Digital guide, or check with HMRC or your accountant.

Frequently asked questions

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