Making Tax Digital

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Exhibits F&G:

By SASKirk
17th Jul 2026 18:03
Must try harder indeed!
The way they seem to silo information and communication is infuriating. I’m not sure how many clients we would have if we put them on hold for 40 minutes, told them they had called the wrong department and to please try again.


By Software Seeker
17th Jul 2026 19:22
I feel your pain. I’m due to call HMRC with an MTD4IT connection query on Monday

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Exhibit H:

By Rob Swan
18th Jul 2026 06:27
Unlikely...

Describing the current 'problems' as 'teething troubles' on the basis that every new system has them is not going to cut it. HMRC are in a mess and they still haven't finished the YE for MTD. The pressure is on for HMRC, never mind the commercial developers who effectively follow on from HMRC, in terms of development. These conditions are not exactly ideal for software development.

I'm fully expecting the whole thing will be called off at some point simply because the problems are not 'teething troubles', they are signs of incompetence and failure.

How bad it will have to get before the higher ups will accept defeat is debatable, and if they manage to scrape through the first YE without a complete meltdown it may delay the inevitable. I do not believe MTD will survive the chaos HMRC is creating or the relationship with commercial software developers.

As always, time will tell...

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Exhibit I

You've got to laugh
MTD Quarterly Updates

Client received this message from HMRC:

"Your Self Assessment quarterly update is due

This message was sent to you on 20 July 2026

You must send us your income and expenses update for your self-employment income through your software for …

You need to send your quarterly update to us through your software on or before 07 May 2027.

It's your responsibility to make sure you send us all necessary updates.

If you have an agent, you may want to discuss this reminder with them."

Plenty of time then, after all.

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Exhibit J:

HMRC saying MTD Quarterly Update not submitted!
Anyone else noticed this?

On 13 July I submitted my first MTD quarterly update for a client. Today they have gone onto their personal tax account after getting a message from HMRC saying 'You need to send your quarterly update to us through your software on or before 07 August 2026'. The software is showing submission status 'success'. The client has checked their personal tax account and it is showing as 'not received', but at the same time showing the profit figure from the quarterly update and a forecast of tax based on that. Has anyone else come across this? If they don't fix it then there will be a lot of penalties flying around next year!

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Exhibit K:

By mr. mischief
20th Jul 2026 17:28
"Matching resource not found". A separate client who definitely has MTD obligations but for whom HMRC thinks there aren't any. Constantly having to input my NI number, passport and licence details into one of the least secure systems in the entire internet.

It's rubbish. Whenever I am asked to assess my experience of HMRC I give the lowest possible rating and the quote "MTD is rubbish" and I encourage everyone else to do likewise.

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Exhibit L:

By FactChecker
20th Jul 2026 16:45
Whilst I applaud your determined positivism (a wonderful personal trait for anybody), I fear it may be wildly misplaced.

Not just for my usual reasons (spanning 'how little of the original vision remains within the watered-down and frankly fractured current status' ... all the way through to the apparent 'lack of connectivity between the 3 legs of MTD - digital books, QUs and the tax return');
BUT because reports from the frontline (see increasing number of 'cri de coeur' posts on Any Answers) tell daily stories of broken/failed attempts to file a first QU (often for some but not all clients).

Of course it's possible that all/most of those experiencing problems are doing something 'wrong' (or at least 'not what HMRC expected' which isn't quite the same thing) ... but even if that were true, which seems unlikely at that scale, it is proof that the pre-live Testing was wholly inadequate.
At the very least it shows that HMRC failed to predict those kinds of 'errors' (and so neither covered those scenarios in guidance instructions, nor put in more effective guard-rails to handle them if/when encountered). One simple but egregious example of this is the number of areas in which a single Error message is generated, without any accompanying info pertinent to the specific cause (which can be one of quite a wide range of unrelated 'issues').

In short the supposedly 'live' system is in reality a testbed ... where to make matters worse (again see recent threads on Any Answers from developers) there is no apparent version or quality control by HMRC over what is provided to developers. APIs are published with errors (reported but not fixed from previous versions - or occasionally previously fixed but now re-introduced) / APIs are deprecated with inadequate warning (which is necessary not simply to 'plug in the new version' - but to check all the other places where they indirectly impact in unplanned ways) / APIs that are not even published yet (or at least only in a state known to be incomplete & unready for the tax return) / and so on.

A technology environment (which is what MTD is - tax being almost ancillary to that) requires a lot more than someone saying that 'it is working' (even if that person understands what that means ... which is a dig at Athow & Ogilvie not you, Robyn). That would be a start - but it needs to behave in a reliable & consistent manner, and to be stable over a decent duration; not be something that is treated as under constant revision, and so fundamentally disposable.

I agree wholeheartedly that "the headline numbers for Q1 are no doubt going to be hailed a great success" ... that's a given even if based on cherry-picking the data and omitting the 'nasties' ... but 'hailing' and 'claiming' ain't the same as the reality.

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Andy Burnham has sacked MP Murray...the Labour MP who pressed the MTD4IT go button.

Exhibits M, N & O:

By North East Accountant
21st Jul 2026 10:58
Every quarter is tedious......submitting something that has no point whatsover.


Replying to North East Accountant:
By Tornado
21st Jul 2026 16:00
It goes against the professional grain to be forced to submit figures that do not represent anything like the true tax liability. I cannot see any justification and of course, no point in having to do this other than it being another demonstration of how Government can control us more and more if they want to. More State Control is a stated aim of the Current Government of course.

Having said that, gathering masses of inaccurate information is not going to be much use to them!

At least we can stick to our Professional Standards when it comes to filing the Year End Tax Returns, or at least I hope that will be the situation.


By Stoker
21st Jul 2026 11:36
The only prediction I can make is that HMRC's phone lines will be jammed and you'll be lucky to speak to anyone by Xmas.

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Exhibit P:

By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
20th Jul 2026 16:39
Well until 95%+ of the 864,000 mandated filings (excluding all those who have signed up by accident due to HMRC's over eager emails) have gone in, I wouldnt go calling anything much of a success. And that is just "filed something" as opposed to "file something meaningful"

And this is the really, really, really easy bit. The hard bit starts 6th April with replacement tax return. Thats where 95% of the pain is.

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Exhibit Q:

By FactChecker
21st Jul 2026 00:07
Oh goodie ... yet another example of where HMRC already have three (subtly) distinct bugs (sorry 'incident case types').

So not only is the taxpayer/agent wasting time unnecessarily (due to having to interact with software that has patently NOT been properly tested), but when they encounter the obvious result they can't even be sure from which bug that error has resulted!

Oh and the bugs are *within* HMRC's systems (not the commercial software we're all being forced to use - which no doubt is equally unfit for live usage, if only due to HMRC continuing to tinker with their APIs).

In any sane country, the firing-squad would be on stand-by ...

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Martin Lewis..are you really still in favour of this chaos?

Please have a word with the PM and explain this is not going to win Labour votes in the next election.