How far away the Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax deadline may have seemed in the distant past of 2025.

Welcome one and all to the bright future of 2026, where old ways of tax filing are set to be obsolete and the MTD deadline is looming ever closer.

If your clients are not yet MTD ready, then it is time to help them make the final push.

What is causing a delay in MTD readiness?

It is no secret that some people who are supposed to be MTD ready are unlikely to meet the first deadline.

This is why the penalties for not keeping up with MTD requirements are not set to take effect until 2027.

Conversely, the generosity of delaying the penalties to not punish those unprepared might have removed the incentive for them to get prepared.

Like letting a dog smell your hand before you pet it, it seems the hope is that those impacted by MTD are able to see that it is relatively harmless throughout 2026, so they can take it more seriously next year.

There is another issue causing the delay and that is the figures from HMRC that only 60 per cent of those affected by MTD this year have a tax advisor, bookkeeper or accountant.

Even among the ones who are represented, it is difficult to say how many are truly prepared to make the change.

HMRC believes that the construction sector may be home to many who are unprepared for MTD due to general trends against the record-keeping required for MTD.

How can clients get fully ready for MTD?

The new data management and filing requirements brought about by MTD are understandably intimidating for anyone who has managed their careers without such measures.

When clients, or even those who are trying to take on the system unrepresented, baulk at the idea of MTD, they are imagining their current struggles.

Old tax filings often resulted in stress and chaos, with boxes full of receipts being dumped out and sifted through.

The important thing to stress to those about to be impacted by MTD is that MTD aims to remove that stress as well.

Quarterly filings sound intense until you remember that it is supposed to be a submission of files that are kept up to date throughout the year.

There may be a little bit of polish needed before they are submitted, but the quarterly MTD filings are not supposed to be huge administrative tasks.

Accountants need reliable MTD-compliant software that works for this group of clients.

Glasscubes has been designed to be super simple to use while still being able to handle all the tasks required by MTD.

MTD Assist is free for firms and affordable for clients, meaning that you are in control of how you market this technology to your clients.

As more people are set to be pulled into the scope of MTD over the coming years, and with the penalties due to take hold from 2027, now is the time to get your clients MTD ready.

Book a demo to find out how Glasscubes can help your clients finally feel prepared for MTD.