HMRC Making Tax Digital initiative sees high number of missed deadlines

An analysis by advisory group Azets reveals that approximately 428,000 eligible taxpayers missed the first quarterly filing deadline for the Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax initiative. Data from HMRC indicates that while 436,000 taxpayers submitted their updates on time on August 7, this represents only 50.5% of the 864,000 people in scope of the program.

The missed deadlines involve self-employed individuals, sole traders, and landlords. Experts attribute the high number of late submissions to a steep learning curve, HMRC system downtime, registration glitches, and difficulties managing exemptions.

HMRC has waived fines for the first year of the initiative to accommodate the transition. However, taxpayers are advised to prepare for upcoming deadlines to avoid a significant backlog of filings in future tax years.