Making Tax Digital

Making Tax Digital is coming. If you’re like me, you know enough for this to sound ominous but not enough to work out what you need to do about it, which is precisely why I attended the LIFT Network’s free webinar on the topic. Presented by Andrea Tuzzolo, a financial and business translator and copyrighter with a career history that includes senior positions as finance manager and development impact executive, it answered all my most important questions.

First, Andrea explained that Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) will apply to all self-employed business owners (and landlords) based in the UK from the April 2026 tax year or one of the following years, depending on your income. This means it applies to most freelance translators, so it’s essential for us to know about it. However, it does not apply to limited companies, at least for the time being. The good news is that HMRC is planning to write to everyone affected by Making Tax Digital. But Andrea recommends getting ahead of the game, by preparing before you receive that letter.

So, how do you know if MTD will apply to you? Well, if you make qualifying income of over £50,000 (as a self-employed business owner and any landlord income), you will be within the scope of MTD from 6 April 2026. For qualifying income of £30,000, MTD applies to you from 6 April 2027, and for qualifying income of over £20,000, then it applies from 6 April 2027. Lower thresholds may be set in the future! You can check your qualifying income on the gov.uk website.

As soon as MTD applies to you, you’ll need to be on top of your accounting record-keeping at the very least quarterly, but ideally monthly, weekly or even daily, rather than leaving it till the end of the year so that you have the records available that you need to submit to HMRC quarterly.

You’ll need to use HMRC-approved software to make your quarterly submissions. If you’re already using software for your bookkeeping, you may well be able to use this. A variety of types of software are available, including ones that can work based on Excel spreadsheets.

Andreas’s webinar very clearly set out a lot more useful information than this, and I highly recommend watching the whole thing if you may be affected.

LIFT members can watch the recording for free. To join the LIFT Network, please contact our Membership Secretary, Nelly Keavney.