Making Tax Digital for tradespeople: what changes in April 2027

If you work for yourself and turned over more than £30,000 in the last tax year, the way you deal with HMRC changes on 6 April 2027. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax swaps the once-a-year scramble for digital records and a short update every three months.

It sounds worse than it is. Most of the work is keeping your paperwork digital as you go, which saves you time anyway. Here is what changes, who it applies to, and what to sort out over the winter, written for plumbers, sparkies, roofers and every other trade.

Who it applies to, and when

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is for sole traders and landlords registered for Self Assessment. It is coming in stages, based on your qualifying income in an earlier tax year (GOV.UK: check if you need to use it):

From	Qualifying income over	In the tax year
6 April 2026	£50,000	2024 to 2025
6 April 2027	£30,000	2025 to 2026
6 April 2028	£20,000	2026 to 2027

The April 2027 group is decided by the 2025 to 2026 tax year, which ran from 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026. You report it on the return due by 31 January 2027. In other words, the figure that decides whether you are in is already settled: it is the tax year that ended last April.

The first group, over £50,000, started in April 2026. Since September 2026, HMRC has been signing up the people in it who had not done it themselves, from the information it already holds, and telling them afterwards. You do not have to wait for that: you can sign up yourself.

What counts as qualifying income

This is the bit that catches people out. Qualifying income is your self-employment income plus any property income, before expenses: your turnover, not your profit (GOV.UK: work out your qualifying income).

Take a plumber who invoiced £42,000 in 2025 to 2026 and spent £15,000 on parts, fuel and the van. The profit is £27,000, but the qualifying income is £42,000. That is over £30,000, so the plumber is in from April 2027.

Or an electrician with £24,000 of jobs and a flat let out for £8,000 a year: £32,000 together, so in as well. If you own a property with someone else, only your share counts.

What does not count:

• wages from a job taxed through PAYE
• the State Pension and private pensions
• dividends, including from your own company
• your share of a partnership’s profits

If you work as a subcontractor under the Construction Industry Scheme, your turnover is the full amount of your invoices, before the contractor takes the deduction off.

What actually changes

Three things: how you keep your records, a summary every quarter, and how you send your tax return.

1. Digital records

Every bit of income and every expense goes into software, with its amount, date and category (GOV.UK: create digital records). The categories are the same ones you already know from Self Assessment.

The software can be a product made for Making Tax Digital, or a spreadsheet joined up to HMRC by what is called bridging software. You still keep the originals, or copies of them: invoices, bank statements, receipts.

2. A quarterly update

Four times a year, your software sends HMRC the totals for each category. HMRC does not see your individual invoices or receipts. Each update covers the tax year so far, so a mistake in one quarter is simply put right in the next (GOV.UK: send quarterly updates).

Update	The tax year so far, to	Send it by
1	5 July	7 August
2	5 October	7 November
3	5 January	7 February
4	5 April	7 May

If your books run to the end of the month, you can choose calendar quarters instead (to 30 June, 30 September, 31 December and 31 March). The deadlines stay the same.

For the April 2027 group, the first update covers 6 April to 5 July 2027 and is due by 7 August 2027.

3. The tax return, through your software

At the end of the year you add anything else (savings interest, for example), check the figures and submit your tax return from the same software, by 31 January after the tax year (GOV.UK: submit your tax return). For the April 2027 group, the first one is for 2027 to 2028, due by 31 January 2029. Your 2026 to 2027 return, due by 31 January 2028, is done as you do it today.

What does not change: how and when you pay your tax. The payment dates stay where they are.

Penalties: points, not instant fines

Miss a deadline and you get a penalty point, not a fine. Reach 4 points and you pay a £200 penalty, then another £200 for every deadline you miss after that. Below 4, a point drops off after 24 months. Once you reach 4, you clear them by sending everything on time for 12 months and catching up on anything outstanding (GOV.UK: penalties for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax).

The first group had a soft landing: no points for late quarterly updates in 2026 to 2027. That is for that tax year only, so from April 2027 a late update earns a point like a late return does. Paying late still brings late payment penalties and interest, so keep an eye on those too.

Who does not have to

• Under the threshold. If your qualifying income for 2025 to 2026 was £30,000 or less, it does not apply from April 2027. Check again a year later, when the line drops to £20,000. At £20,000 or less, you are exempt.
• Partnerships. They will join later. HMRC has said it will set out the timeline at a later date. Your share of a partnership’s profits does not count towards your own qualifying income.
• Limited companies. A company pays Corporation Tax and is not part of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. What you take out of it as wages or dividends does not count either.
• Digitally excluded. If age, a health condition or a disability stops you using a computer, tablet or phone, if you belong to a religious group whose beliefs rule it out, or if you have no internet at home or at work, you can apply for an exemption. Having always done it on paper is not a reason HMRC accepts (GOV.UK: exemptions).

Exempt or not, you still file a Self Assessment tax return as you do now.

And VAT?

If you are VAT-registered, you have been doing a version of this for years. Every VAT-registered business has used Making Tax Digital for VAT since its first VAT return starting on or after 1 April 2022, whatever its turnover (GOV.UK, March 2022).

Income Tax is a separate service with its own sign-up. Plenty of software does both, but check that yours does before you rely on it.

What to do now: a checklist for the van

You have the winter. Here is a sensible order to do things in.

1. Check your number. Add up your turnover (and any rent) for 2025 to 2026. If it is near £30,000, ask your accountant to confirm it.
2. Talk to your accountant. Many will send the quarterly updates for you, from their own software. Then your job is to keep tidy digital records and get them across on time.
3. Get your records digital now. Do not wait for April. Send invoices from your phone. Take a photo of every receipt the day you get it, before it fades on the dashboard. Keep the paper ones too.
4. Choose your software. HMRC does not provide any. Use its find software page and check it covers all your income, the quarterly updates and the tax return. Some free products exist for simple tax affairs, usually with limits (GOV.UK: choose the right software).
5. Sign up, or check you have been signed up. You use the same user ID and password as for Self Assessment (GOV.UK: sign up).
6. Put the dates in your diary. 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, then 31 January.

Where Hexvan fits, and where it does not

Hexvan is the app we make for tradespeople, so here is a straight answer on what it does here.

What it does: it keeps your paperwork digital as you work. Quotes and invoices are made on your phone, numbered and dated. A receipt is kept with what you paid, to whom, and a photo of the paper one. At the end of a quarter or a year, you export the period’s sales, VAT per rate and expenses as spreadsheet files, with the receipt photos, for your accountant or your bridging software.

What it does not do: Hexvan does not send anything to HMRC, and it is not on HMRC’s list of software for Making Tax Digital. You still need software from that list, or an accountant who uses one, for the quarterly updates and the tax return. Your expenses still have to be sorted into HMRC’s categories along the way.

In short: Hexvan is where the paperwork lives day to day. The software on HMRC’s list is how the figures reach HMRC.

The short version

If you turned over more than £30,000 in 2025 to 2026, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax starts for you on 6 April 2027. Keep your records digital, send a summary every quarter, and file your return through software by 31 January. Start with your records now, and the rest is a few minutes every three months.

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This is general information, not tax advice. It is correct on 17 October 2026, from HMRC’s guidance on GOV.UK. Rules and dates can change, so follow the links above and talk to your accountant about your own situation.