It is estimated that 900,000 self employed individuals or sole traders will be affected by changes to the tax system from 6th April 2026. If you have an annual income of over £50,000 including if you are a landlord, you’ll be required to file quarterly updates online with details of your income and expenses.
The first deadline for these will be 7th August, to cover 6th April – 5th July. You’ll still complete an annual self-assessment return by the end of January for the previous tax year, which remains the deadline for paying any tax due.
Only digital submissions will be accepted by HMRC which can either be using compliant accounting software or if you use a spreadsheet such as Excel then with some bridging software that will extract the right data from your records and send it.
So you need to be sure your records are in place immediately to avoid having to trace receipts and payments going back. If you use the main accounting software providers such as Xero or Sage you will find the options you need, or if switching to cloud accounting you could check to see what your bank offers.
Once established, it should be relatively straightforward but there will be important work to do if you are not yet using digital records, as there will be fines and other penalties if you miss the deadlines for submission. You can find out more about what you need to do with the Making Tax Digital for Income Tax – HMRC guide on the Government website or speak with your local Growth Hub who should be able to assist you Berkshire Growth Hub – The Skills and Business Hub.
