Step-by-step guidance on how to sign up clients for MTD for ITSA
HMRC has recently highlighted that only around 10% of taxpayers expected to join the first phase of Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax have registered so far, despite the new quarterly reporting regime taking effect in just three weeks – as a reminder sole traders and landlords are required to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026 if their total annual income from self-employment and property is over £50,000.
As per the data released, only 81,000 sole traders, landlords and self-employed individuals have signed up. This is a small fraction of the 864,000 taxpayers due to enter the system, leaving roughly 90% yet to register ahead of the 6 April launch. So far, HMRC has also received 2,200 exemption requests.
Practitioners are urged to register their clients as soon as possible to avoid any last-minute registration problems, especially when clients are relying on your professional advice on timely advice and action on maintaining digital records.
Before practitioners can sign up their clients for MTD for ITSA, they must ensure that that they have appropriate authorisation to act on behalf of their clients. This includes being registered as an agent with HMRC and having an active Agent Services Account (ASA). For existing clients, current agent authorisation will enable to link the clients within the ASA account. For new clients, agents must be authorised via HMRC’s digital authorisation process, typically through an online approval link.
The registration process is quite simple via ASA and all you need is to have the following information ready before you start the sign-up process through MTD for ITSA service:
You will need their:
- full name
- date of birth
- National Insurance number.
If your client is a sole trader, you will also need:
- their business name – this is the name they use on their invoices
- their business address
- the nature of their business (their trade).
If your client has multiple self-employment income sources or property businesses, you will need to check each one in the online service and add any that are missing.
For each of your client’s income sources, you will need:
- their business start date or the date they started receiving property income (if this is within the last two tax years)
- to confirm the tax year your client will start using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
Once you access the MTD for ITSA sign up service from your ASA account to register your clients, there will be a prompt to check if you have compatible software for keeping digital records.
At this stage you enter your impacted client’s details, after which you will notice the following screens for the sign-up service:
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
You will need to tell HMRC about active sole trader or property income and provide the ‘start date’ or the date they started receiving property income (if this is within the last two tax years). If the sole trade or property income started before 6 April 2023, you do not need the actual date for registration purposes, but you can choose 6 April 2023.
Step 4
Once fully signed up, you should be able to view your client’s reporting obligations, submitted returns, deadlines, payments made etc on your ASA account.
Step 5
As this is an additional service you are now providing to clients, ACCA firms must ensure that they have an up-to-date engagement letter for these services. Use ACCA's template engagement letters schedule for MTD for ITSA to tailor the scope, responsibilities and terms and conditions for agreed services. There is also a new Helpsheet on MTD filing under the Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation (PCRT).
Useful resources
