Sole traders and landlords in London could be in for a costly summer of stress, as new research from leading business management platform Tide reveals that 26% of qualifying business owners in the city aren’t ready for the MTD switch – despite the first filing deadline being less than 30 days away.
Making Tax Digital is considered the largest change to the UK tax system in more than 30 years, which will now require business owners to maintain digital records and file their tax returns using a HMRC-compatible platform, rather than using paper or manual submissions. Tide first highlighted this looming issue in February 2026, when they revealed sole traders faced a £2.18 billion compliance bill, equivalent to £753 per business.
Tide’s new research surveys 500 UK sole traders and landlords with annual revenues above the £50,000 qualifying mark for year one of MTD. The aim: to discover how prepared owners are for the summer tax shake-up, with the first filing deadline landing on Friday August 7th.
With the deadline just days away, 22% of owners still don’t know it’s coming, and worryingly, over 1 in 4 (26%) of qualifying owners in London haven’t yet signed up with HMRC for Making Tax Digital, a requirement for any qualifying business owner or landlord. This is above the national average of 25% yet to sign up.
85% don’t know how often they will need to file once MTD starts
The first quarterly filing deadline looks set to bring a summer of tax stress. But the research shows confusion will continue well beyond August 2026.
Making Tax Digital will require business owners to file tax information to HMRC five times a year: four quarterly updates and one final annual submission. However, analysis through Tide’s survey finds that 85% of UK business owners joining MTD this year don’t know this, with 1 in 3 (31%) instead believing they will now need to file eight times or more. Awareness has barely moved in the run-up to the deadline, as back in February Tide’s research found 83% of sole traders didn’t realise they’d need to file five times a year.
Lost time and revenue: Owners predict they will spend six days over the next year dealing with MTD
The launch of Making Tax Digital lands in the middle of summer, during busy trading periods and at a time when many business owners had hoped for time off. Nearly 1 in 2 (44%) say they will be forced to focus time during normal working hours on MTD-related admin, while 1 in 3 (32%) feel this will have to be completed during time off.
In total, sole traders and landlords foresee this new tax admin requiring six full days of their attention over the next 12 months, a time requirement that totals £1.5 billion* in lost revenue across qualifying businesses in the first year of Making Tax Digital
Free filing… and ice cream
To help anyone still struggling to understand Making Tax Digital, Tide is taking to the streets of London to provide first-hand insights, and a little moment of summer joy for business owners amongst the July-August filing stress.
Located at Victoria Station during Thursday 23rd July and at Broadgate, Finsbury Avenue on Friday 24th July, Tide experts will be “Making Tax Delicious”, giving out free ice cream and insights on switching to Making Tax Digital. Tide current account holders can manage and automate digital records and submit MTD returns using Tide’s HMRC-recognised tool, all free in the Tide app.
Free ice cream flavours include ‘Self Assess-mint’, ‘VATnilla’ and ‘PAYE-stachio’, in addition to a ‘Declare your Hundreds and Thousands’ topping. The van will also be making stops in Manchester and Brighton.
George Schmidt, CEO UK/Europe at Tide, comments: “No one wants to be thinking about tax over summer, but we can’t escape the fact that Making Tax Digital is here and the first deadline is just days away.
“The first wave of business owners need to ensure they are signed up with HMRC and file on time, to avoid penalties that accumulate with each missed deadline. It is a worry that so many still aren’t ready for the switch, but we hope that over the coming days we can raise awareness, spread some joy and importantly, help people to make their first submission, so they can get on with enjoying their summer.”
For further information on how Tide customers can take care of Making Tax Digital, visit: https://www.tide.co/making-tax-digital/