04/09/2026
HMRC Begins Auto-Enrolment
HMRC has now made it clear that it intends to take action against taxpayers who have not yet registered. On 12 August 2026, just five days after the first quarterly deadline had passed, HMRC announced that it would begin automatically enrolling approximately 294,000 sole traders and landlords into Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from September 2026.
These are individuals who were legally required to join the system from 6 April 2026, but who had not registered by that point.
For affected sole traders and landlords, this means the time to get registered, choose suitable software, organise digital records and ensure quarterly reporting requirements are being met is running out.
From this month, HMRC will begin automatically enrolling sole traders and landlords who are required to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax but have not yet registered.
It is important to understand what auto-enrolment actually means. Being automatically enrolled simply places you into HMRC’s Making Tax Digital system. It does not set up your accounting software, connect your bank feed, digitise your records, or submit your quarterly updates. The penalties for non or late submission being £200.00 each time.
In addition to this, the other important consideration is that if HMRC auto-enrols you before you take action yourself, you may also lose the ability to amend certain business details online.
The opportunity to register voluntarily and get your systems in place on your own terms is therefore closing quickly.
