Check your qualifying income against the published Making Tax Digital thresholds and see which start date applies. Turnover counts, profit does not, and a salary does not count at all.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is being phased in by turnover rather than profit, which catches people out in both directions. Expenses do not bring you under the threshold, and employment income does not push you over it. Enter your figures below to see which of the published start dates applies to you.
Turnover before expenses, not profit. Employment income is shown only to confirm it does not count.
Qualifying income above £50,000 in the 2024 to 2025 tax year brings you in from 6 April 2026.
This checks the published turnover thresholds against the figure you enter. It does not decide your position: HMRC assesses qualifying income from the Self Assessment return you submitted for the tax year in question, and exemptions exist. Check your own return, and see the GOV.UK guidance below.
| Tax/source year | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Region | England/Wales/Northern Ireland |
| Tax code basis | 1257L where the page uses PAYE defaults |
| Pension basis | No pension deduction unless this example says otherwise |
| Student loan basis | No student loan unless selected in this example |
| What is not decided here | PayBreakdown does not decide payroll correctness, lender approval, benefit entitlement or employer compliance, and does not give regulated financial, mortgage, debt, tax, payroll or legal advice. |
|---|
The figures on this page are worked from making tax digital, using the values below. Open the calculator if your example salary differs.
This estimate is worked out on £35,000 annual gross. Change any of those and the take-home figure moves; pension method and student loan plan usually move it most. A payslip can differ from any calculator because payroll works pay period by pay period, so a tax-code change, a bonus, arrears or a refund can land in one month and not the next. See how each deduction is worked out.
Turnover. GOV.UK defines qualifying income as your total income from self-employment and property before expenses, so deducting costs does not bring you below a threshold.
No. Employment income taxed through PAYE is excluded, as are partnership profit shares, dividends, State Pension and private pensions. Only self-employment and property income count.
The one that has already finished. Qualifying income over £50,000 in the 2024 to 2025 tax year brings you in from 6 April 2026; over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026 brings you in from 6 April 2027; over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027 brings you in from 6 April 2028.
No. HMRC assesses qualifying income from the Self Assessment return you submitted for the tax year in question, and exemptions exist. This page checks the published thresholds against a figure you enter.
Last updated 2026-08-19. Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-08-07. Estimates are for planning and should be checked against official records where the decision matters.