You have until 7 August — what MTD ITSA actually requires of tradespeople

If you're self-employed and earned more than £50,000 in the last tax year, your first MTD ITSA quarterly update is due by 7 August 2026. Not your annual tax return — a brand new kind of submission, every three months.

Most of the tradespeople we talk to either haven't heard of it or assume their accountant is handling it. Some accountants are. Many aren't — and even if yours is, the underlying records still have to be kept digitally by you.

From 6 April 2026 onwards, if you're in scope:

• Keep digital records of every bit of business income and every business expense — no shoeboxes of receipts, no paper-only ledgers.
• Submit a quarterly summary to HMRC through HMRC-approved software, four times a year.
• File a final declaration once a year that finishes off the tax position — this replaces your current Self Assessment return.

The first quarter covers 6 April 2026 to 5 July 2026. You have until 7 August 2026 to submit the figures. Quarter 2 is due 7 November. Quarter 3 is 7 February 2027. Quarter 4 is 7 May 2027.

• April 2026 — income over £50,000: the first wave. You're in scope right now.
• April 2027 — income over £30,000: the bigger wave. Most full-time tradespeople.
• April 2028 — income over £20,000: almost everyone self-employed in the trades.

"Income" means turnover — what you invoice clients, before you take off materials, fuel, and other expenses. If you invoiced £55,000 last year and had £20,000 of costs, you're still in scope from April 2026.

HMRC has a new points-based penalty system. Every late quarterly submission earns a point; once you hit four points (one missed year), you get a £200 fine. Subsequent misses keep adding £200 each.

More importantly, you can't catch up at year-end any more. The quarterly figures are the record. Get them wrong and you're fixing them retroactively, which is more painful than getting them right the first time.

You don't need a full accounting suite to do this. You need something that:

• Captures every job as you finish it (Honest Invoices does this with voice — 30 seconds per invoice).
• Tracks expenses against the right HMRC categories.
• Submits the quarterly summary directly to HMRC — without you having to copy figures into a separate form.

That's exactly what we're building. £15/month, locked. Built by a solo developer who went through the full HMRC sandbox journey end-to-end.