MTD with More Than One Income Source: What to Send

Under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax you send a separate quarterly update for each self-employment you run and one for your UK property business as a whole, then a single tax return at the end of the year that covers everything. Income such as wages, pensions, dividends and interest is never reported quarterly. The part people find confusing is working out how many "sources" they actually have, so this guide goes through it income type by income type.

Key takeaways

• Qualifying income is gross self-employment income plus gross property income, added together.
• Each trade needs its own digital records and its own quarterly update.
• All UK lettings count as one property business. Foreign property is a second, separate one.
• Every source shares the same deadlines: 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May.
• One year end tax return covers all income, due 31 January after the tax year.

What counts as an income source under MTD?

An income source, for Making Tax Digital (MTD) purposes, is a business that HMRC expects you to keep digital records for and report on every three months. There are only two kinds: self-employment (work you do as a sole trader) and property (rent you receive as a landlord). Everything else you earn is outside the quarterly system.

HMRC's own guide to using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax explains that your software adds up the digital records "for each business that you have" and sends the totals. So the number of updates you send depends on the number of businesses, not the number of customers, platforms or bank accounts.

First, are you in MTD at all?

The test looks at your qualifying income, which is your self-employment and property income added together before any expenses are taken off. That matters when you have more than one source, because two modest incomes can take you over a threshold that neither would reach alone.

• From 6 April 2026: qualifying income over £50,000 in the 2024/25 tax year.
• From 6 April 2027: qualifying income over £30,000 in the 2025/26 tax year.
• From 6 April 2028: qualifying income over £20,000 in the 2026/27 tax year.

Once you are in, MTD applies to all of your self-employment and property income, including a small side trade that would never have reached the threshold by itself. You can check your position with the GOV.UK tool to find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, and our guide to MTD qualifying income covers the test in more detail.

Which income needs quarterly updates?

Self-employment: one update for each trade

If you run two genuinely different businesses as a sole trader, for example private hire driving and a weekend catering stall, each one is a separate self-employment. Each needs its own digital records and its own quarterly update. You cannot merge them into one set of figures to save time.

Driving for two apps is different. That is normally one trade with two sources of work, so it is one set of records and one update. If you are unsure whether you have one trade or two, look at how you have reported them on your Self Assessment return so far, and ask before you set up your software.

Property: UK together, foreign apart

All of your UK lettings are treated as a single UK property business. Whether you have one flat or six, you keep one set of records and send one update. If you also let property abroad, that is a separate foreign property business with its own records and its own update. Landlords can read more in MTD for landlords.

The deadlines are the same for every source

Updates are due by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, whichever source they relate to. Each update is cumulative: it covers from the start of the tax year to the end of the latest period, and your software works the totals out for you. See MTD quarterly update deadlines for the periods each date covers.

One tax return at the end

The quarterly updates are summaries, not tax returns. After the tax year ends you make any accounting adjustments for each business, add your non-MTD income and submit one return through your software. For the 2026/27 tax year that is due by 31 January 2028. Our guide to the MTD final declaration explains this stage.

Step by step: setting up when you have several sources

1. List every income you have and mark each as self-employment, UK property, foreign property or other.
2. Decide how many trades you have. Match this to how your past tax returns were prepared.
3. Add up the gross figures for self-employment and property to see which MTD start date applies.
4. Choose software that handles all your sources. Not every product covers both self-employment and property, or foreign property.
5. Set up a separate business in the software for each source and check each appears in your HMRC online account.
6. Record income and expenses against the right business as you go. See MTD digital records explained.
7. Send every update by each deadline, including for a source with nothing to report.
8. Tell HMRC when a source starts or stops, so you are not chased for updates on a business that has ended.

Worked example (illustrative)

"Amara", an illustrative example, works three days a week as an employee, runs a freelance design business, sells prints at a market as a second trade and lets two flats in London. In 2024/25 her gross income was £28,000 from design, £9,000 from the market stall and £16,000 in rent, on top of her salary and a few hundred pounds of dividends.

Her qualifying income was £28,000 + £9,000 + £16,000 = £53,000. Salary and dividends are ignored. Because that is over £50,000, she joined MTD from 6 April 2026, even though no single source came close to the threshold.

Each quarter she sends three updates: one for design, one for the market stall and one for the two flats together. That is twelve updates across the 2026/27 tax year. Her next set is due by 7 November 2026. After 5 April 2027 she will finalise all three businesses, add her salary and dividends, and submit one return by 31 January 2028.

Amara and her figures are invented for illustration and are not a real client.

Common mistakes

• Testing each income separately. The threshold applies to the combined gross total.
• Using profit instead of gross income. Expenses are not deducted for the test.
• Merging two trades into one update. Each self-employment is reported separately.
• Sending a separate update per property. UK lettings go in together.
• Skipping a quiet source. A nil quarter still needs an update.
• Forgetting the year end. Four updates do not replace the tax return, and other income must still be declared.

How we can help

We set up each income source correctly in MTD software, keep the records apart, send every quarterly update and prepare the year end return with your other income included. MTD compliance starts from £49 per month on a fixed fee. See our MTD compliance service, view our pricing, or contact us before the next update is due on 7 November.