HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) programme has been years in the making. From April 2026, it goes live for Income Tax Self Assessment \u2014 affecting self-employed people and landlords with qualifying income above \u00a350,000. But what does it mean for share investors?<\/p>\n
Not directly \u2014 not yet. The MTD framework<\/a> currently covers VAT (already live), Income Tax (launching April 2026 for income above \u00a350,000, April 2027 for income above \u00a330,000), and eventually Corporation Tax.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> discusses the programme’s timeline and scope.<\/p>\n If you’re a landlord<\/strong> with rental income above \u00a350,000, or self-employed<\/strong> with business income above \u00a350,000, MTD for Income Tax applies from April 2026. You’ll need to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC through compatible software.<\/p>\n If you’re purely an investor<\/strong> (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.<\/p>\n Even if MTD doesn’t currently apply to your CGT, keeping digital records now is sensible:<\/p>\n HMRC is moving towards digital-first.<\/strong> When CGT eventually joins MTD, you’ll need digital transaction records going back years. Starting now avoids a retrospective scramble.<\/p>\n Digital records are just better.<\/strong> A CSV file is searchable, sortable, and importable into a calculator. A shoebox of paper contract notes is not. See our record-keeping guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n Broker CSVs are already digital.<\/strong> You’re halfway there. Download them annually, run your calculation via TaxBull<\/a>, save the session file. That’s a complete digital audit trail.<\/p>\n HMRC maintains a list of MTD-compatible software<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n For the CGT calculation specifically, TaxBull<\/a> produces the numbers that go into SA108 \u2014 regardless of whether you file via MTD software or the traditional self-assessment system.<\/p>\nWho is affected right now?<\/h2>\n
Why you should prepare anyway<\/h2>\n
Compatible software<\/h2>\n
The bigger picture<\/h2>\n