Making Tax Digital — What UK Investors Need to Know for 2026

HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) programme has been years in the making. From April 2026, it goes live for Income Tax Self Assessment — affecting self-employed people and landlords with qualifying income above £50,000. But what does it mean for share investors?

Does MTD apply to capital gains?

Not directly — not yet. The MTD framework currently covers VAT (already live), Income Tax (launching April 2026 for income above £50,000, April 2027 for income above £30,000), and eventually Corporation Tax.

Capital Gains Tax reporting through SA108 hasn’t been brought into MTD as of 2026. You’ll still file your CGT via the existing self-assessment process described in our filing walkthrough.

However, the direction of travel is clear. HMRC has stated its long-term goal is for all tax reporting to be digital and, eventually, more frequent than annual. The House of Commons Library briefing on MTD discusses the programme’s timeline and scope.

Who is affected right now?

If you’re a landlord with rental income above £50,000, or self-employed with business income above £50,000, MTD for Income Tax applies from April 2026. You’ll need to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC through compatible software.

If you’re purely an investor (employed, with share gains and dividends as your only additional income), MTD doesn’t apply to you yet. Your obligation is still the annual self-assessment by 31 January.

Why you should prepare anyway

Even if MTD doesn’t currently apply to your CGT, keeping digital records now is sensible:

HMRC is moving towards digital-first. When CGT eventually joins MTD, you’ll need digital transaction records going back years. Starting now avoids a retrospective scramble.

Digital records are just better. A CSV file is searchable, sortable, and importable into a calculator. A shoebox of paper contract notes is not. See our record-keeping guide.

Broker CSVs are already digital. You’re halfway there. Download them annually, run your calculation via TaxBull, save the session file. That’s a complete digital audit trail.

Compatible software

HMRC maintains a list of MTD-compatible software. For investors not currently within MTD scope, existing self-assessment filing (through HMRC’s online system or commercial software like GoSimpleTax, TaxCalc, or FreeAgent) continues to work.

For the CGT calculation specifically, TaxBull produces the numbers that go into SA108 — regardless of whether you file via MTD software or the traditional self-assessment system.

The bigger picture

MTD is part of HMRC’s broader digital transformation strategy. They’re investing heavily in data matching — cross-referencing broker reports, bank data, and property registers against tax returns. The days of informal, paper-based CGT reporting are numbered.

For investors, the practical implication is simple: keep clean digital records, calculate properly, and file accurately. The tools to do this are available now — you don’t need to wait for MTD to cover CGT before getting organised.

MTD rules are evolving. Check gov.uk/making-tax-digital for the latest scope and timelines. This is general information, not advice.