HMRC starts enrolling Content Creators into Making Tax Digital
If you’re a content creator operating as a sole trader, you could soon receive a letter from HMRC confirming that you’ve been enrolled into Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax.
HMRC has started automatically signing up eligible taxpayers for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax, meaning some content creators and influencers could soon receive a letter in the post confirming they have been enrolled. This will be starting from September 2026 for any creators who have not yet registered themselves.
For creators operating as a sole trader, now is a good time to check whether MTD applies to you, when you will be impacted by this and make sure you are ready for the new quarterly reporting requirements.
And this is only the first wave. The qualifying income threshold falls to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028, meaning many more content creators, influencers and digital entrepreneurs will be brought into MTD over the next two years.
What is Making Tax Digital for Income Tax?
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, often shortened to MTD for Income Tax, changes the way some sole traders report their business finances to HMRC. Rather than preparing everything once a year through Self-Assessment, taxpayers within MTD must:
- Keep digital accounting records
- Use MTD-compatible software
- Submit quarterly updates to HMRC
- Continue to meet their normal tax obligations
If you are new to MTD, our first MTD blog covers the key rules, exemptions and what creators should be doing to prepare.
Could MTD for Income Tax apply to your creator business?
HMRC has already contacted taxpayers within the first wave of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which applies to those with qualifying income over £50,000.
For content creators, those figures can be easier to understand when you look at what they mean month to month. Currently, MTD impacts sole traders with monthly income of £4,167 or more.
| Tax year | Qualifying income threshold | Approximate monthly income |
| 2026/27 | Over £50,000 | £4,167+ |
| 2027/28 | Over £30,000 | £2,500+ |
| 2028/29 | Over £20,000 | £1,667+ |
As you can see from the table, from April 2027 this limit will be dropped considerably to cover creators receiving an average of more than £2,500 per month in qualifying income. From April 2028, the threshold drops again to £20,000, equivalent to an average of around £1,667 per month.
That income might come from a combination of:
- YouTube revenue
- Brand partnerships and sponsorships
- Affiliate income
- Twitch tips or earnings
- Patreon
- Snapchat and other social platforms
- Other income generated through your creator business
That means MTD will not just affect larger creators. As the thresholds fall, a much wider range of content creators, influencers and digital entrepreneurs operating as sole traders will be brought into the new reporting requirements.
What if HMRC tells you that you have been enrolled into MTD?
If you receive a letter from HMRC saying that you have been automatically enrolled for Making Tax Digital, don’t ignore it.
HMRC has identified you as being within their first phase based on the qualifying income reported on your 2024/25 Self Assessment tax return, meaning your sales income was over £50,000.
The first thing to check is whether you still meet the criteria, namely are you still operating as a sole trader, and whether MTD applies to your circumstances (detailed in our first MTD blog).
If it does, you’ll need to make sure you are:
- keeping digital records of your business income and expenses
- using MTD-compatible accounting software
- preparing and submitting the required quarterly updates
- continuing to meet your other Self-Assessment and tax payment obligations
What are the MTD quarterly deadlines?
For creators already within MTD for the 2026/27 tax year, the standard quarterly update deadlines that should be in your calendar are:
- 7 August 2026
- 7 November 2026
- 7 February 2027
- 7 May 2027
Your MTD-compatible software will use the financial records you keep throughout the year to prepare a quarterly summary of your income and expenses for you to review and submit to HMRC.
For clarity, these quarterly updates are not full tax returns. They are simplified returns based on the records you have kept for your creator business.
Will you get a penalty if you missed the first MTD deadline?
No, the good news for content creators is that during the initial “soft landing” period, no late filing penalty points or late filing penalties will apply to the quarterly updates up to the final quarterly deadline.
You should still submit any outstanding updates, however, as your MTD reporting responsibilities have not disappeared.
It’s also important to remember that this does not change your usual tax payment deadlines. You will still need to make your normal tax payments by 31 January and 31 July, where applicable.
Missing these payment deadlines could still result in late payment penalties and interest being charged.
Don’t have time for the extra MTD admin?
If quarterly reporting sounds like another job to add to an already busy schedule, now is a good time to review how your accounting setup could work more efficiently.
For example, are payments from different platforms and brand partners going into multiple accounts? Are you still piecing together your income and expenses manually? Or could accounting software help automate more of the process and give you a clearer view of your finances throughout the year?
Getting the right systems in place will make MTD easier to manage and free up more of your time to focus on creating content and growing your business.
If you want to talk through your options, the StarBox team can help with accounting software, bookkeeping, quarterly reporting and the wider tax requirements that come with running a creator business.
Get in touch with the StarBox team to find out how we can help.