Making Tax Digital · Heating & gas engineers
Making Tax Digital for heating and gas engineers: do you need it?
170 days until it starts for sole traders over £30,000
Checked against GOV.UK, 14 October 2026.
The short answer for heating and gas engineers
A self-employed heating engineer clears £30,000 of turnover on about ten boiler swaps, because the boiler is in the price. If your 2025 to 2026 year was over £30,000, Making Tax Digital starts for you on 6 April 2027, and the service plan customers who pay monthly add to it every month.
The thresholds, from GOV.UK (26 March 2026): over £50,000 for 2024 to 2025 started on 6 April 2026, over £30,000 for 2025 to 2026 starts on 6 April 2027, over £20,000 for 2026 to 2027 starts on 6 April 2028. All counted as turnover, before expenses.
The figure HMRC checks
HMRC checks your qualifying income: everything that came in from self-employment and property, before expenses. GOV.UK calls it turnover. Wages from a PAYE job don't count.
The figure is what you invoiced, not what landed in the bank. GOV.UK says the deductions a contractor takes count as advance payments towards your tax and National Insurance bill, and qualifying income is counted before expenses, so the 20% that came off is still part of your turnover.
A worked year, in heating and gas engineers' numbers
A heating engineer took £71,000 in 2025 to 2026: boiler swaps, annual services, two heat pump jobs and a run of landlord certificates, with £3,100 of CIS deducted on one contractor's site. £32,000 went on boilers, cylinders, flues and the van. HMRC's figure is £71,000, so 6 April 2027 at the latest.
- Invoiced, before expenses
- £71,000
- Materials, costs, subbies
- £32,000
- CIS taken off by contractors
- £3,100
- What reached the bank
- £67,900
- HMRC's figure
- £71,000
Making Tax Digital from 6 April 2027 at the latest
Over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026 means 6 April 2027. If it was over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025 as well, it should have started on 6 April 2026.
Need it? Sort it in two minutes.
InstaQuote, 7 days free, then from £47 a month only if you carry on. ANNA opens from inside it, free for your first year. About 2 minutes.
- InstaQuote does the quotes, the invoices and the chasing.
- ANNA is the MTD software your updates go to HMRC through, free for your first year.
- You do the job.
- Not sure where to start? Reply to your welcome email and I'll set it up with you.
- ANNA gives you a personal tax calendar with reminders, so no quarter slips past.
- Prefer your accountant? They can still do it, and your records are ready for them.
I'm Tom, the founder. Ten years in the trade, every quote done in the van. If it's not quicker than what you do now, bin it and tell me why.
AdInstaQuote: 7 days free, then from £47 a month only if you carry on. ANNA: £0 monthly fee to start, MTD for Self Assessment free for the first year, and a personal tax calendar with reminders (anna.money, 14 October 2026). InstaQuote may be paid by ANNA if you open an account through us. ANNA's terms apply.
CIS and heating and gas engineers
Installing heating systems is on GOV.UK's construction list, so a builder or a housing contractor paying you to fit boilers on a site deducts 20% from the labour. Boiler swaps, services and breakdowns for homeowners and landlords have no deduction. Every invoice counts in full towards your Making Tax Digital figure.
The rate, from GOV.UK: 20% if you're registered for CIS, 30% if you're not, nothing if you have gross payment status. Whoever deducts must give you a statement, and that statement is your proof.
The records heating and gas engineers lose
- Boilers bought on the merchant account and paid 30 days later, so the receipt and the job carry different dates.
- Landlord gas safety certificates at £70 a time, dozens of them, half paid in cash.
- Gas Safe registration, analyser calibration and the manufacturer training day, all once a year.
Every three months your software sends HMRC totals for each income and expense category, not the receipts themselves. The updates are due on 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, and each one covers the tax year so far.
InstaQuote holds those quotes, invoices and expenses as you work, so they can go into your Making Tax Digital software as the digital records. It isn't that software itself. ANNA, our partner, is the software your updates and return go to HMRC through.
Questions heating and gas engineers ask
A boiler bought in March and fitted in April: which quarter is it in?
Record the boiler on the day you pay for it and the job on the day you're paid, each with its date, and the software puts each in the right year's totals. Each quarterly update is totals for the year so far, so the tax year is what matters, not the quarter.
Do landlords deduct CIS from me?
A private landlord doesn't; they're not a contractor. A housing association or a property company that spends heavily on construction can be a contractor under CIS and deduct. The paperwork they send you tells you which.
Do service plan payments count as income before the service is done?
Record each monthly payment the day it arrives and it's in the right quarter's totals. Your accountant can advise on the year-end treatment; the quarterly update only needs the totals.
I'm Gas Safe and sole trader. What exactly does MTD change for me?
How you report, not what you pay. GOV.UK: you keep digital records of income and expenses, send quarterly updates of category totals through software, and your tax return goes through that software by 31 January as before. The boilers you buy and the services you invoice are the same records you keep now, held digitally.
Can my accountant send the quarterly updates for me?
Yes. GOV.UK says an agent can sign you up and act for you, and sending the updates is part of that. They still need the figures as digital records, amount, date and category, so what you record on the job each day is what they send every quarter.
Is there free MTD software I can use as a heating engineer?
GOV.UK lists free products for people with simple tax affairs and says some limit how many transactions you can enter; a heating engineer with boiler invoices, services and parts bills may outgrow a cap fast. Through InstaQuote, ANNA gives sole traders MTD for Self Assessment free for the first year, with InstaQuote 7 days free then from £47 a month.
Does InstaQuote file my Making Tax Digital updates?
No. InstaQuote holds the quotes, invoices and expenses so they can go into your Making Tax Digital software as the digital records; it isn't that software itself. ANNA, our partner, is the software your updates and return go to HMRC through, from the business account you open inside your InstaQuote account.
Checked against GOV.UK
- GOV.UK: Check if you're eligible for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (updated 26 March 2026)
- GOV.UK: Work out your qualifying income (updated 11 September 2026)
- GOV.UK: Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (updated 7 September 2026)
- GOV.UK: Send quarterly updates (updated 7 September 2026)
- GOV.UK: Penalties for Income Tax Self Assessment volunteers (updated 12 March 2026)
- GOV.UK: Penalties for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (updated 30 March 2026)
- GOV.UK: Sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (updated 13 October 2026)
- GOV.UK: Create digital records (updated 7 September 2026)
- GOV.UK: Find software that's compatible (updated 13 July 2026)
- GOV.UK: Apply for an exemption (updated 17 August 2026)
- GOV.UK: CIS deductions from your payments (read 14 October 2026)
- GOV.UK: HMRC's Transformation Roadmap (no MTD for Corporation Tax) (updated 21 July 2025)
- GOV.UK: What is the Construction Industry Scheme (what counts as construction work) (read 14 October 2026)
- GOV.UK: What you must do as a CIS subcontractor (deductions) (read 14 October 2026)
- GOV.UK: What you must do as a CIS contractor (statements, monthly returns) (read 14 October 2026)
