Webinar: MTD Accountability Club - April 2026 by AccountingWEB

About

Our MTD Accountability Club, in association with Sage, is a monthly series of practical webinars where we cover the key topics around preparing your clients and practice for Making Tax Digital for income tax.

For our April session, we’ll be looking at what has happened since mandation began on 6 April and what the first few weeks have told us so far. With MTD now live for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, this session will explore the early experiences, immediate challenges and practical lessons emerging from the first phase of the rollout.

We’ll be joined by Craig Ogilvie, HMRC’s Director of Making Tax Digital, Samantha Mitcham, Owner of SJCM Accountancy, and Sage’s Chris Downing, with your host Richard Hattersley from AccountingWEB.

Together, the panel will reflect on how the transition has gone in practice, including what firms are hearing from clients, where sign-up and software readiness have gone smoothly, and where questions or pressure points are still appearing. We’ll also look at what firms should be focusing on next, from keeping up momentum after the April start date to getting clients ready for the first quarterly update deadlines later in the year. HMRC guidance confirms that while quarterly updates are required, penalty points will not be applied for late quarterly updates in the 2026–27 tax year, making this first year especially important for bedding in processes properly.

As always, the aim is to give practices practical insight, honest reflections and a clearer sense of what good MTD progress looks like now that the rules are no longer theoretical.

The MTD Accountability Club is brought to you in association with Sage. If you’d like to join the club and share your progress, please get in touch.

Presenters

Richard Hattersley

Managing Editor, AccountingWEB

Chris Downing

Director of Product Management for Accountants and Bookkeepers, Sage

Chris joined Sage having been a partner at a top 100 accountancy firm. He brings nearly 20 years of hands on experience and strategic insight of the profession, coupled with an infectious enthusiasm in the adoption of technology to improve business operations, maximise performance and have some fun on the way.

Samantha Mitcham

Owner, SJCM Accountancy

Samantha, an AAT licensed accountant, formed SJCM Accountancy in 2019 having spent over 13 years employed in practice. SJCM Accountancy focus on balancing the implementation of modern technology and being human. Samantha is enjoying the freedom of growing her own firm. She thrives on helping small business owners better understand their numbers, stay ahead of compliance, and perform at their best.

Craig Ogilvie

Director - Making Tax Digital, HMRC

Craig Ogilvie is a proud public servant with over 20 years' experience in Government. At the pandemic’s onset in March 2020, he helped deliver the UK Government furlough scheme as the Project Director of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). This is his proudest career achievement and his CJRS team, as part of the HMRC’s CV19 programme, won the APM’s Programme of the Year 2020 and a Civil Service award.

In October 2020, Craig joined the Cabinet Office for a challenging and exciting role, becoming Director responsible for many End of EU Transition Services. In April 2021, he re-joined HMRC to become the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) of Pensions, Payments and Debt Transformation Programmes within the new Transformation Group. Afterwards, he led HMRCs major Data Programmes as SRO for two years. Craig has led Making Tax Digital as Programme Director since October 2023.

Reserve Your Spot

First Name*

Last Name*

Email Address*

Phone Number*

Job title*

Company*

I work in:*

Country*

I work in*