Do sole traders need Making Tax Digital?
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is being phased in for sole traders and landlords by income: from April 2026 if your qualifying income is over £50,000, and from April 2027 if it's over £30,000. You'll need to keep digital records and send quarterly updates to HMRC using compatible software. VAT-registered businesses are already within MTD for VAT.
MTD means keeping your income and expenses as digital records and reporting to HMRC through software, rather than once a year on paper or in a spreadsheet. For Income Tax it arrives in stages based on turnover, with the £50,000 band first in April 2026 and the £30,000 band the year after; a lower band is planned to follow.
The practical upshot for a sole trader is simple: start keeping your books digitally now, so when your band comes round you're already set up and not scrambling.
InstaQuote keeps your income and expenses as tidy digital records as you quote, invoice and get paid — so your books are MTD-ready. Filing your return is still something you or your accountant do; InstaQuote's job is to make sure the underlying records are clean and complete.