How do I sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax as a landscaper?

Sign up on GOV.UK with your Self Assessment sign-in. If your landscaping turnover before CIS deductions was over £30,000 in 2025-26, you start on 6 April 2027, unless it was over £50,000 in 2024-25: then you should already have started.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) works the same for a landscaper or gardener as for any sole trader. What differs is the mix: hard landscaping for a builder is often under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS), garden maintenance on its own is not, and homeowners never are. This page follows GOV.UK's sign-up, MTD and CIS guidance, checked on 17 October 2026. The general sign-up guide covers the service for everyone.

Do you need to sign up, and when

HMRC tests your qualifying income: all your self-employment and property income before expenses, also called turnover, but not your share of a partnership's profit.

HMRC writes to people over the line, but GOV.UK says checking is still your responsibility.

Which landscaping jobs are CIS

The law covers landscaping and site clearance that prepare for or finish building work. HMRC's manual draws the line like this, and for MTD every row counts.

Two catches. If you lay a patio for a builder who is working for a homeowner, CIS 340 says the builder must operate CIS on what it pays you. And if a contract includes any CIS work, every payment under it comes in, so a developer's maintenance contract that includes a wall can bring in the mowing too. The CIS guide for landscaping has more examples.

Diggers, plant and machinery

• Hiring out your digger. HMRC's manual says a contractor's hire of plant with an operator is under CIS, and hire without one is not. Both are turnover.
• Plant you hire in. When your deduction is worked out, plant you hired from someone else, and its fuel, can be treated as materials. If you own the digger, only the fuel can. Your gross figure for MTD is the same.

A landscaper's turnover, worked through

Take a landscaper with no other income, under £50,000 in 2024-25. In 2025-26, homeowners paid £8,200 for garden maintenance and £7,900 for patios and fences. A housebuilder's monthly statements show £15,000 gross for turfing and fencing new-build gardens, of which £4,000 was materials. The 20% deduction came off the other £11,000, so £2,200 was taken and £12,800 reached the bank. Bank receipts total £28,900, but qualifying income is £8,200 + £7,900 + £15,000 = £31,100, so MTD starts on 6 April 2027. The turnover guide explains why the gross figure is used.

Seasonal work

If you start part-way through the year, HMRC annualises a sole trader's income where it has the information, so 6 months is doubled: £16,000 from 6 October 2025 to 5 April 2026 gives £32,000. The regulations allow a just and reasonable basis where that would work unreasonably or unjustly, which in our reading could cover a first year of only busy or quiet months. Once in MTD, you still send every quarterly update, even with no income.

What the sign-up asks

You must be registered for Self Assessment and have sent a tax return in the last 2 years. You then give your business name (the name on your invoices), address and trade, any start date in the last 2 tax years, your start year, and every self-employment and property source, including any that has stopped. GOV.UK treats different trades as separate businesses. In our reading, garden maintenance and hard landscaping are one trade, so one business.

You sign in with the user ID and password you got when you registered for Self Assessment. You may need to prove your identity with a phone app and your passport or driving licence. Since 13 October 2026, answering questions instead is no longer offered.

An agent with an HMRC agent services account can sign you up instead, once you have authorised them. Only your main agent can submit your tax return.

What this means for you

If your turnover, plus any rent, was over £30,000 in 2025-26 but not over £50,000 in 2024-25, you start on 6 April 2027. Your first quarterly update, for 6 April to 5 July 2027, is due by 7 August 2027. You can sign up now, for the current or next tax year. Volunteers are asked to agree that the new penalties apply.

GOV.UK says there are no penalty points for late quarterly updates in 2026-27. The 28 October 2026 Budget said April 2027 joiners get none for 2027-28 updates either, though updates must still be sent, so the earliest possible point is 7 August 2028. After that, each missed deadline earns a point (not while volunteering), and 4 points brings a £200 penalty. HMRC adds your CIS deductions to your return, and any refund is requested separately online. If you were under £30,000, check 2026-27: over £20,000 means 6 April 2028.

Steps to sign up as a landscaper

1. Add up your 2025-26 income: gross figures from your CIS statements, homeowner jobs before any VAT you leave out, any plant hire and any rent. The free MTD check shows your start date.
2. Check you are registered for Self Assessment and filed a return in the last 2 years.
3. Choose MTD software that keeps CIS and non-CIS income apart, or someone to do it.
4. Have your business name, address, trade and any recent start date to hand.
5. Sign in to the GOV.UK sign-up service, add every business and property, and pick your start year.
6. Complete any identity check, or authorise your agent and let them sign you up.
7. Keep every monthly CIS statement, to check the deductions HMRC adds to your tax return.

The trades section has more guides for landscapers.