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

You, or an agent you authorise through HMRC: an accountant, a bookkeeper or a managed service. Pick one that handles garden rounds, cash jobs and CIS work. 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. Many landscapers mix garden rounds for homeowners, some paid in cash, with patios for builders 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 landscaper

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

Garden jobs and builder jobs

CIS 340 says private householders are not contractors, so a homeowner having work done on their own garden pays you in full, whatever you build.

The law behind CIS lists landscaping among operations that prepare for or finish construction work. HMRC's manual says walls, drives and patios are caught even as routine landscaping, and turf laying as part of a wider construction project; CIS 340 says the same of tree planting and landscaping on a new housing development. Routine landscaping, gardening and tree surgery outside a wider construction project are not. Fences on a wider project, or with posts set in concrete, are caught; light fences with posts driven in are not.

CIS 340 says one item of construction work brings every payment under that contract into the scheme, and a contractor working for a private householder must still operate it on what it pays you. The landscaping CIS guide sorts more jobs.

In our reading, all of it goes into the income in your quarterly updates, with CIS pay counted before deductions. 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. HMRC adds them to your MTD tax return.

What a landscaper's agent needs from you

• A diary of cash jobs, with the date, amount and customer. GOV.UK says some transactions may not appear in full in a bank feed and must be created separately. Cash you keep never appears, and banked cash shows only as a lump sum.
• Monthly CIS statements from each builder or developer that takes a deduction, due within 14 days of the end of the tax month. If you are paid gross, keep your invoices instead.
• A note of which builder jobs were CIS work, and under which contract.
• Merchant and hire receipts. Contractors do not take the deduction from materials you paid for directly, and CIS 340 says plant hired from a third party, such as a mini digger, can count as materials.
• Van and kit costs, such as mowers, strimmers and tip fees.
• Your 2024-25 and 2025-26 figures, to confirm your start date.

If your turnover is under £90,000, each item only needs to be marked as income or expense.

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.

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.

Agree whether you or your main agent will request any CIS refund, as GOV.UK says a supporting agent cannot. Whoever you choose, 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 together.
2. Sort a year of jobs by who paid you: homeowners, cash included, or builders and developers.
3. Ask any agent whether it sends quarterly updates and knows which jobs fall in CIS.
4. Check it has an HMRC agent services account and money-laundering supervision.
5. Agree whether it will be your main agent, which includes the tax return and any CIS refund request.
6. Get the fee in writing, including VAT.
7. Accept the authorisation link through HMRC, and pass on cash records and each CIS statement as they arrive.

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