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Rating: The Amber delivery status recognises that the programme continues to navigate a challenging and complex delivery environment but remains on track to deliver successfully with robust risk mitigation plans in place. Over the last year, MTD continued to meet all key delivery and readiness milestones and a successful testing phase has further demonstrated service and operational readiness. A sustained engagement campaign has resulted in strong agent and customer awareness, and customer sign-ups are in line with forecast trajectories required to realise 26/27 benefits. The MTD Programme Board formally reviewed agreed key readiness criteria in September 2025 and January 2026, confirming the programme remained on track to go live from April 2026 with the first mandated cohort. Independent assurance has been secured through an Internal Audit review and the NISTA Gate 0/4 review. Both concluded that the programme is in a strong readiness position, with all key criteria met for go live.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's end-date at 25/26-Q4 remained the same. The programme remains on track to deliver the costed scope as set out in its current business case by March 2029.

Cost: Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 25/26-Q4 (measured in £m) decreased from £1,439.11m to £1,389.46m. This reflects the current scope of the programme, following some minor in year changes.

Source: NISTA Major Projects Annual Report 2025-26 (data)

Rating: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 24/25-Q4 remained at AMBER. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ The Amber delivery status recognises that the programme continues to navigate a challenging and complex delivery environment, but remains on track to deliver successfully. Over the last year, the programme made significant progress and remains on track against its critical path plan. The programme completed testing of core functionality and started to ramp up customer volumes in the 24/25 testing period as planned. The public phase of testing will allow further functionality to be used in live with an increasing number and variety of customers ahead of the service going live for mandated customers from April 2026. At Autumn Budget 2024 the government confirmed their commitment to the MTD for ITSA delivery timescales, and at Spring Statement 2025, further announced: •The threshold for MTD for Income Tax will be lowered to £20k from April 2028; •A requirement for MTD customers to complete the entirety of their Self-Assessment obligations in MTD-compatible software; and •A number of deferrals and exemptions for small groups of customers. This announcement provides stakeholders certainty on most of the remaining key policy and design issues, and we will continue to work with stakeholders to address any remaining lower level questions over the coming months.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the project's end-date at 24/25-Q4 has moved to 31/03/2029. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ Compared to the financial year 23/24-Q4, the project's end-date at 24/25-Q4 has been moved to reflect the revised schedule completion date, which is now 31st March 2029. This follows the Business Case update, where MTD programme is now expected to hand over to Business as Usual from March 29, reflecting changes to its scope, including the inclusion of >£20k cohort from 28/29. The programme remains on track to deliver the costed scope as set out in its current business case by March 2029.

Cost: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 24/25-Q4 (measured in £m) increased from 1272 to 1439. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ Since Q3 the programme has gained Treasury Approval of our updated business case, which changes our baseline to align with the business case. Departmental Baseline has increased by £166.995m from £1,272.030m to £1,439.025m following the approval of the latest MTD Programme Business Case. This business case now provides an estimate of the programme’s full lifecycle costs, including run costs through to March 2034, which were previously classified as un-costed.

Source: NISTA Annual Report 2024-25 (data)

Rating: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 23/24-Q4 remained at Amber. This is primarily due to the following factors. The Amber delivery status recognises that the programme continues to navigate a challenging and complex delivery environment. Over the last year, the programme took significant steps to improve overall delivery confidence. This included embedding a new operational model of multi-functional teams to drive delivery velocity; strengthening internal and external assurance through updated governance structures; and reinvigorating stakeholder engagement and readiness through co-design of the service._x000D_ _x000D_ The programme is taking proactive steps to mitigate these challenges. This includes developing robust contingency plans and exploring options to accelerate build, testing and migration. The programme is on track to ramp up customer volumes in the 24/25 testing period which will support the testing of critical customer journeys.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the project's end-date at 23/24-Q4 remained schedule to finish on 2028-03-31. This is primarily due to the following factors. The programme remains on track to deliver the costed scope as set out in its current business case by March 2028.

Cost: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the project's departmental-agree Whole Life Cost at 23/24-Q4 increased from 885m. to 1272m. This is primarily due to the following factors. . Revised delivery plan following Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) in December 2022 which gave consideration to lessons learned from MTD VAT with a multi release delivery for ITSA allowing for full E2E testing_x000D_ . Inclusion of an additional 2 years of costs for 2026/27 and 2027/28_x000D_ . Additional year build for VAT and subsequent impact on Penalty Reform

Source: IPA Annual Report 2023-24 (data)