The Making Tax Digital initiative will mean you have to go through a software provider in future to file. So far it looks like these providers will all be commercial companies. Some may offer free products but its not guaranteed. Also their software will be proprietary, there are no open source providers (yet?)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_Tax_Digital

I think the comparison with America could be right!

Yes my apologies, this only affects certain people/businesses who are required to submit tax returns, not everyone which I guess was your original question. Might have to add more explanation to our sidebar about who this impacts. Though note that it's not businesses only and if you circumstances change in future it could affect you:

The changes are expected apply to a wide range of taxpayers, including most businesses, micro-businesses, self-employed people and landlords, as well as individual taxpayers.

...from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_Tax_Digital

Great questions and I agree the word 'digital' is doing a lot of work in the phrase 'making tax digital'

Thanks for this info, very useful!

...but you can only file that way if the income is NOT from being a sole trader and NOT from property (like rental income) AND is below the thresholds (£50k in 2026, £30k in 2027, £20k in 2028) so far as I understand.

Added remaining missing software options from the official source at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-software-thats-compatible-with-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax

Yes, that method will stay open under these new rules if a person doesn't meet the requirements. They are targeting specific kinds of income it seems.