Who can do my Making Tax Digital quarterly updates for me as a gas engineer?

You, or an agent you authorise through HMRC: an accountant, bookkeeper or managed service. Most homeowner and landlord work is outside CIS; builder installs can be inside it. For 2027 joiners, the first update is due 7 August 2027.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) asks for four quarterly updates a year, sent from compatible software, then a tax return. For most gas engineers they come mainly from card takings, invoices and merchant receipts, plus some builder work under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). This page follows GOV.UK and HMRC's manuals as checked on 18 October 2026.

Your options as a gas engineer

You can have one main agent at a time and any number of supporting agents.

Homeowner, landlord and builder work

CIS 340 says private householders are not contractors, so a homeowner paying you direct for a boiler swap, a service or a repair takes nothing off. In our reading, a landlord who only lets property is not a contractor unless its construction spending passed £3 million in the previous 12 months, and in any case a yearly gas safety check is not construction work.

Builder work can differ. The law behind CIS lists installing systems of heating and power supply in a building as construction operations, and HMRC's manual counts a mains gas supply. CIS 340 says a contractor working for a private householder must still operate the scheme on covered work. But CIS 340 excludes the repair, servicing or maintenance of heating systems, and HMRC's manual says replacing a boiler is not installing a system. In our reading:

GOV.UK says your income is your pay before deductions, and the deductions are advance payments towards your tax. They are not part of the update. The CIS guide for heating engineers has the edge cases.

What a gas engineer's agent needs from you

• Card provider statements. GOV.UK says that if you only know your income after expenses, you find the full amount, record it as income and record the expenses separately.
• Invoices to homeowners, landlords and letting agents.
• Merchant receipts for boilers, flues, pipe and parts, or a bank feed the agent can read.
• Van costs or a mileage log, business share only.
• Monthly CIS statements from any builder that takes deductions, due within 14 days of the end of each tax month.

Your Gas Safe registration is separate from tax. The safety law requires self-employed people doing gas work to belong to a class approved by the Health and Safety Executive. It does not sign you up for MTD or authorise anyone with HMRC.

What any agent must have

• An HMRC agent services account. An agent needs one to sign clients up for MTD. HMRC now requires most people paid to deal with it about someone else's tax to register through this account, and is bringing the rule in by stages.
• Approved money-laundering supervision, by HMRC or another supervisory body, before it applies for that account.
• Your authorisation, not your password. A new agent sends a link and you accept it with your own HMRC sign-in within 21 days. HMRC may ask you to verify your identity first.

What this means for you

MTD started on 6 April 2026 if your qualifying income was over £50,000 in 2024-25. Otherwise it starts on 6 April 2027 if your 2025-26 qualifying income was over £30,000, or on 6 April 2028 if it was over £20,000 in 2026-27. Qualifying income is self-employed and property income before expenses, and in our reading, for CIS work that means before deductions.

If you start in April 2027, your first update covers 6 April to 5 July 2027 (1 April to 30 June on calendar periods) and is due by 7 August 2027. If you must use MTD, a late tax return earns a penalty point from your first MTD year, and a late update from 2027-28, or from 2028-29 if you join in April 2027, as the 28 October 2026 Budget said; 4 points brings a £200 penalty.

HMRC adds your CIS deductions to your MTD tax return, and any refund is requested separately through HMRC online services, so agree whether you or your main agent requests it, as GOV.UK says a supporting agent cannot. You stay responsible for your tax.

If you would rather hand it over, our Trades Tax plan is £35 a month including VAT. Our tax plans start once our HMRC registrations are complete. Until then you can join the waitlist, and no payment is taken. Then your bank feed becomes your quarterly updates, your CIS deductions are tracked all year, and you sign off every figure. The founding offer for the first 500 trades clients is £5 a month for your first 3 months, then £35 a month. Cancel any time. We'll remind you before it changes.

Steps to hand over your updates

1. Use the free MTD check to confirm your start date, counting all your work.
2. Ask any agent whether it sends quarterly updates and handles card takings and CIS work.
3. Check it has an HMRC agent services account and money-laundering supervision.
4. Agree whether it will be your main agent, which includes the tax return and any CIS refund request.
5. Get the fee in writing, including VAT.
6. Accept the authorisation link through HMRC, and pass on card statements and any CIS statements as they arrive.

The quarterly update guide for gas engineers shows what goes in. There are more guides in the trades section.