Do You Still File a Self Assessment Under MTD?

The short answer: Self Assessment as you knew it is replaced, not abolished

If you are a sole trader or landlord now operating under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for IT), you no longer submit the familiar Self Assessment tax return at the end of the year. Instead, HMRC has replaced it with two year-end obligations: an End of Period Statement (EOPS) and a Final Declaration. The Final Declaration is the closest equivalent to the old SA return — it is where you confirm your income, claim reliefs, and settle your tax liability for the year.

So the question is not quite "do I still do Self Assessment?" — it is "what replaces Self Assessment, and do I need to do anything extra?" This page answers both.

How MTD for Income Tax actually works: the four-part cycle

MTD for IT changes the rhythm of your tax reporting from one annual event into a rolling quarterly process with a year-end wrap-up. Here is how the full cycle fits together for a tax year running 6 April to 5 April.

Step 1: Quarterly updates (four times a year)

Every quarter you submit a digital summary of your business income and expenses to HMRC through MTD-compatible software. You are not paying tax at this point — you are sending data. HMRC uses it to show you an estimated tax position in your online account, but nothing is due until the year-end stages.

The four quarterly periods and their filing deadlines for the 2026–27 tax year are:

The next deadline you face right now is 7 November 2026, covering 6 July – 5 October 2026.

Step 2: End of Period Statement (EOPS)

After the fourth quarterly update, you submit an End of Period Statement for each source of business income — so if you are both a sole trader and a landlord, you submit one EOPS for the trade and a separate one for the property business. The EOPS is where you make any accounting adjustments, claim allowances specific to that income source (such as the Rent a Room relief or capital allowances), and confirm the figures are correct. You must submit your EOPS by 31 January following the end of the tax year — the same date that was previously the Self Assessment filing deadline.

Step 3: Final Declaration

The Final Declaration is the step that most closely resembles the old Self Assessment return. Once all your EOPS submissions are done, you pull everything together in your MTD software: all business income, any other income (employment, savings, dividends, capital gains), personal allowances, reliefs such as pension contributions or Gift Aid, and any adjustments. You then declare the information is complete and correct. HMRC calculates your final tax bill, and payment is due by 31 January — again, the same date as before.

Step 4: Payment

The payment dates do not change under MTD. You still pay any balancing payment by 31 January after the tax year ends, and payments on account (if applicable) remain due on 31 January and 31 July.

Who is in MTD for Income Tax right now?

MTD for IT has been mandatory since 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords whose qualifying income exceeds £50,000 in a prior tax year. Qualifying income means your gross income from self-employment and/or UK property before expenses.

HMRC has begun automatically enrolling people who met the threshold but had not voluntarily signed up. If you received a notice from HMRC confirming you have been enrolled, you are already in the regime and your quarterly obligations have been running since April 2026.

The threshold will drop to £30,000 from 6 April 2027, and to £20,000 from 6 April also — a date HMRC has indicated but not yet finally confirmed in legislation at the time of writing. If your income is currently below £50,000, standard Self Assessment continues to apply to you for now.

Do you still file anything with HMRC Self Assessment?

This is where people get confused, so it is worth being direct. Once you are enrolled in MTD for IT:

• You do not file a traditional SA100 Self Assessment tax return.
• You do submit quarterly updates, an EOPS, and a Final Declaration — all through your MTD software, not through HMRC's own Self Assessment portal.
• Your Self Assessment online account may still exist, and HMRC may still refer to your "Self Assessment record," but you no longer use the SA100 form or the annual return system.

There is one important exception. If you have income that sits outside the MTD regime — for example, capital gains from selling a second property, foreign income, or income from a trust — you may still need to report that through a separate process. HMRC's current guidance is that such income is declared within the Final Declaration itself, so for most people there is no separate Self Assessment return to file. However, if your circumstances are complex, you should confirm with a qualified accountant whether any additional reporting obligations apply.

Worked example: what the year looks like for a self-employed consultant

Suppose you are a freelance IT consultant. In 2024–25 your gross self-employment income was £67,000, which put you above the £50,000 threshold. You are therefore in MTD for IT from 6 April 2026.

During 2026–27 your income and expenses break down like this:

• Gross invoiced income: £72,000
• Allowable business expenses (software, travel, home office): £9,400
• Net profit: £62,600

You also received £1,200 in bank interest during the year.

Quarterly updates: Each quarter you log into your MTD software and record the income and expenses for that period. At the end of Q2 (5 October 2026) you have recorded roughly £36,000 of income and £4,700 of expenses for the first half of the year. You submit this summary by 7 November 2026. No tax is paid at this stage — HMRC simply updates your estimated liability in your account.

EOPS: After 5 April 2027 you review your full-year figures. You claim your £1,000 trading allowance — actually in this case it does not apply because your expenses exceed it, so you claim actual expenses of £9,400. You confirm the net profit of £62,600 in your EOPS and submit it by 31 January 2028.

Final Declaration: Also by 31 January 2028, you complete your Final Declaration. You add the £1,200 interest (within the personal savings allowance of £500 for a higher-rate taxpayer, so £700 is taxable). After your personal allowance of £12,570 (2026–27 figure — confirm current year rates with HMRC), your taxable income from all sources is roughly £50,730. Your software calculates the Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance due. You confirm the declaration and the liability is settled.

Payment: Any balancing payment is due by 31 January 2028. If you made payments on account in July 2027 and January 2028 based on the prior year's liability, those are offset against the final bill.

The arithmetic looks different from previous years, but the amount of tax you owe is calculated on exactly the same basis — MTD changes how and when you report, not how much you pay.

What happens if you miss a quarterly deadline?

HMRC has introduced a new penalty points system for MTD for IT, separate from the old Self Assessment late-filing penalties. Each missed quarterly update adds one penalty point to your record. Once you reach the threshold for your filing frequency — 4 points for quarterly filers — a £200 financial penalty is charged. Points expire after a period of compliance, but accumulating them is worth avoiding. The old fixed £100 late-filing penalty for Self Assessment does not apply once you are in MTD.

Late payment penalties and interest on unpaid tax continue to apply in the same way as before.

Practical steps to take right now

1. Check whether you are enrolled. Log into your HMRC online account or check your post. If HMRC has auto-enrolled you, your MTD obligations are already running.
2. Choose MTD-compatible software. You cannot submit quarterly updates through HMRC's own website — you need software that is recognised by HMRC. A list of compatible products is maintained on GOV.UK.
3. Submit your Q2 update by 7 November 2026. This covers 6 July – 5 October 2026 and is the next immediate deadline.
4. Keep digital records. MTD requires you to keep records digitally. Spreadsheets linked to bridging software are permitted, but dedicated accounting software is simpler.
5. Do not file an SA100. Once you are in MTD, filing a Self Assessment return as well would be wrong. Your Final Declaration is the year-end submission.

Summary: old vs new at a glance

Next step: See how EasyTax handles Self Assessment.