{
  "title": "Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: what counts as qualifying income",
  "description": "Which income types count towards the Making Tax Digital for Income Tax qualifying-income threshold, and whether the figure is measured before or after expenses. Compiled from HMRC guidance because HMRC does not publish it as a single table.",
  "capturedOn": "15 August 2026",
  "method": "Every row restates HMRC's own guidance 'Work out your qualifying income for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax'. The thresholds come from HMRC's 'Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax'. Nothing is inferred; where the guidance gives a caveat, the caveat is carried into the note.",
  "basisOfMeasurement": "gross (turnover, before expenses)",
  "source": "https://www.gov.uk/guidance/work-out-your-qualifying-income-for-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax",
  "thresholdSource": "https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-out-if-and-when-you-need-to-use-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax",
  "thresholds": [
    {
      "amount": 50000,
      "incomeYear": "2024 to 2025",
      "startsFrom": "6 April 2026"
    },
    {
      "amount": 30000,
      "incomeYear": "2025 to 2026",
      "startsFrom": "6 April 2027"
    },
    {
      "amount": 20000,
      "incomeYear": "2026 to 2027",
      "startsFrom": "6 April 2028"
    }
  ],
  "caveats": [
    "Qualifying income is your gross self-employment and property income (turnover), not your profit. This is the point most often misunderstood.",
    "HMRC assesses your qualifying income from the Self Assessment return you submitted for the previous tax year, so the year a figure relates to is the year before the threshold applies.",
    "An excluded income type does not, on its own, pull you into MTD — but you may still have to report it on your tax return. \"Does not count towards the threshold\" is not the same as \"you can ignore it\".",
    "HMRC updates this guidance. The linked HMRC pages are the live answer if this dataset has aged."
  ],
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0",
  "attribution": "Fableworks HQ — https://fableworkshq.com/mtd-qualifying-income/",
  "data": {
    "counts": [
      {
        "income": "Self-employment (sole trader) income",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": true,
        "note": "Counts in full, measured before you deduct any expenses — it is your turnover, not your profit."
      },
      {
        "income": "UK property (rental) income",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": true,
        "note": "Counts before expenses. If your rental accounting period is not 12 months, you must annualise it yourself."
      },
      {
        "income": "Foreign property and foreign self-employment income (if UK resident)",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": true,
        "note": "If you were UK tax resident, foreign property and self-employment income declared on your Self Assessment return counts."
      },
      {
        "income": "Your share of a jointly owned property",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": true,
        "note": "Only your share counts. If you are only told your share after expenses are deducted, HMRC assesses that after-expenses figure."
      },
      {
        "income": "Income from a source that has since ceased",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": true,
        "note": "If a self-employment or property source stopped after your last return but you still have another continuing source, the ceased income still counts."
      },
      {
        "income": "VAT you choose to include (cash basis, VAT registered)",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": true,
        "note": "On the cash basis you can declare business income with or without VAT; if you include VAT, it counts towards qualifying income."
      },
      {
        "income": "Property or trading income from a bare trust you are entitled to",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": true,
        "note": "Any property or trading income you are entitled to as a beneficiary of a bare trust counts."
      },
      {
        "income": "Interest in possession trust income paid directly to you",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": true,
        "note": "Property or trading income paid to you directly, bypassing the trustees, counts."
      },
      {
        "income": "Transactions in UK land treated as trade profits (continuing)",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": true,
        "note": "Counts where the income is a continuing source spanning more than one tax year."
      },
      {
        "income": "Disguised investment management fees and income-based carried interest",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": true,
        "note": "Treated as the profits of a specific trade, so they count."
      },
      {
        "income": "Personal self-employment or property income reported to you by a partnership",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": true,
        "note": "Your own self-employment or property income that a partnership tells you about counts, and needs digital records and quarterly updates — even though the partnership profit share itself does not."
      }
    ],
    "doesNotCount": [
      {
        "income": "Employment (PAYE) income",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": false,
        "note": "Salary and wages taxed under PAYE never count."
      },
      {
        "income": "Your share of partnership profit",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": false,
        "note": "Your profit share as an individual partner does not count; you report it in your software but keep no MTD digital records for it."
      },
      {
        "income": "Dividends",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": false,
        "note": "Including dividends from your own company."
      },
      {
        "income": "State Pension",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": false,
        "note": "Does not count."
      },
      {
        "income": "Private pensions",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": false,
        "note": "Does not count."
      },
      {
        "income": "Transition profits from basis period reform",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": false,
        "note": "Transition profits assessed across 2024/25 and the following four tax years do not count."
      },
      {
        "income": "Qualifying care relief",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": false,
        "note": "Relief received by foster carers, kinship carers and similar does not count."
      },
      {
        "income": "One-off transactions in UK land",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": false,
        "note": "If the income falls within a single tax year and is not a continuing source, it does not count."
      },
      {
        "income": "Income from UK REITs or PAIFs",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": false,
        "note": "Income from Real Estate Investment Trusts or Property Authorised Investment Funds does not count."
      },
      {
        "income": "Foreign income not declared on a UK return (if non-UK resident)",
        "countsTowardsThreshold": false,
        "note": "If you were not UK tax resident, foreign property and self-employment income you have not declared on your UK Self Assessment return does not count."
      }
    ]
  }
}