Changes to self employed tax return, making tax digital

[boselecta]

To all the self employed engineers out there.

From 6th April 2026 anyone turning over £50k or more will have to submit their tax return using digital software 4 times a year!.

From 6th April 2027 the limit it will go down to £30k before you have to use digital software 4 times a year.

They are calling it Making tax digital.

Basically this is going to be costly and time consuming for everyone.

Does anyone know of any software that is compatible with government software that they can recommend?

[electrofix]

no thought for the little man or his costs

if you turn over £30000 its takes away what little profit you have in one lump

not sure how my accountant is going to manage this as i hand everthing to them and they sort it once a year

could be time to give up and retire

and also will raise prices for everyone and stoke inflation

Dave

[stratfordgirl]

The turnover threshold for self-employed MTD will come down to £20,000 from April 2028.

A list of compatible software is here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-software-thats-compatible-with-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax#software-available-now

If you use an accountant, isn’t it just a case of sending them your invoices once a quarter instead of once a year? I’m guessing accountants will love it as it will spread their workload more evenly through the year

[electrofix]

stratfordgirl wrote:
If you use an accountant, isn’t it just a case of sending them your invoices once a quarter instead of once a year? I’m guessing accountants will love it as it will spread their workload more evenly through the year

and lead to higher accountants fees as they have to make 4 returns per year

Dave

[stratfordgirl]

It’s only a quarterly summary of income and expenses, not a full tax return, so presumably just a few button presses to submit the return once the quarter’s invoices have been entered on the accounting software?

[stratfordgirl]

Information from Sage:

And for your periodic updates, it’ll simply be a matter of clicking or tapping a button to prepare the report, then checking it briefly, before sending it off.

You should know there’s no legal requirement for the periodic updates to even be accurate—although it’s best if they are.

[Kentish]

I use Quickbooks, am Ltd and VAT registered. Entering invoices on Quickbooks is a doddle, as is expenses. I would imagine its like my VAT return, it calculates it and can do it all. My accountant just passes her eye over the figures to check.
I dont see anything wrong with trying to stop tax dodging.

[electrofix]

agree there but some of the smaller non vat businesses its a lot of work

was Vat registered years ago but got out and so glad i did. at the moment give my accountant a pile of papers at the end of the year and leave them too it

so will have to back to the quarterly slog.
another nail that make business start ups more expensive

it should go hand in hand with vat registration limits as large book keeping fees on small companies is not fair

Dave

[DWSERV]

QuickBooks has been my go-to accounting software since the COVID-19 outbreak. So far this year it has cost me £19.20 a month, the price does continue to rise, and no doubt will again when MTD comes in. It’s easy to use for sole traders, though I’d recommend having an accountant set it up initially to ensure everything is configured correctly.

[Author]

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