Making Tax Digital · Stove & Chimney Specialists
Making Tax Digital for stove and chimney specialists: 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 stove and chimney specialists
A self-employed stove installer supplying the stove, the liner and the hearth is over £30,000 of turnover on about ten installs, because the stove is in the price. Over £30,000 for 2025 to 2026 means Making Tax Digital from 6 April 2027, and the sweeps paid in cash count too.
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 stove and chimney specialists' numbers
A stove installer took £61,000 in 2025 to 2026: fourteen supply and fit stoves, liners, a few open fire conversions, sweeps, and a builder's renovation with £1,200 of CIS taken off. £30,000 went on stoves, liners, hearths, scaffold and the van. HMRC's figure is £61,000, and over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025 meant 6 April 2026.
- Invoiced, before expenses
- £61,000
- Materials, costs, subbies
- £30,000
- CIS taken off by contractors
- £1,200
- What reached the bank
- £59,800
- HMRC's figure
- £61,000
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 stove and chimney specialists
Fitting a stove and lining a chimney is installing a heating system and alterations to a building, both on GOV.UK's construction list, so a builder paying you on a renovation deducts 20% from the labour. A homeowner paying for a stove or a sweep deducts nothing. Every job counts in full for Making Tax Digital.
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 stove and chimney specialists lose
- Stoves ordered from the distributor and paid on a pro forma weeks before fitting.
- Sweeps at £70 cash, sixty a winter, that never reach the books.
- HETAS registration, scaffold hire and the flue gas analyser, paid 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 stove and chimney specialists ask
Does the stove I supply count as turnover or just my fitting?
If the customer paid you for the stove, the whole amount is turnover and the stove is an expense. Ten £4,000 installs is £40,000 of turnover on perhaps £15,000 of profit, which is why stove fitters are in.
Sweeping is cash and small. Does it count?
Yes. Every payment for your work is self-employment income, and the threshold is the total before expenses. Sixty sweeps at £70 is £4,200, often the difference between under and over.
I was over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025. Am I already in?
Yes. GOV.UK's eligibility page says over £50,000 for 2024 to 2025 meant starting on 6 April 2026, so a stove fitter at that level is already in. Get the records for this year into the app now and talk to your accountant about the updates that have gone by.
Does a quarterly update mean paying tax quarterly?
No. The update is category totals for the year so far, GOV.UK says, with no payment attached. The tax itself comes off the return, which still goes in through your software by 31 January after the tax year.
Sixty sweeps a winter in cash. Does HMRC want them one by one?
Each is a record with amount, date and category, but GOV.UK says the update sends the totals, not the list. Sixty taps over a winter, and £4,200 that otherwise never reaches the figure HMRC checks.
Can my accountant do the sign-up and the updates?
Yes, if you're registered for Self Assessment and sent a return in the last two years; GOV.UK says an agent can sign you up and act for you. Stoves, liners and sweeps need to be digital entries for them to send, which the app keeps as you quote and invoice.
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)
