Status: Filing to HMRC from Honest Invoices is coming soon. Until then, your digital records are kept ready, and quarterly updates go live the moment HMRC switches on filing.
Making Tax Digital ITSA
MTD is live now.
Here’s what you have to do.
If you’re self-employed and earn over £50,000 a year, you must keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC. Plain English, no jargon — below.
First quarterly submission deadline.
Subsequent deadlines: 7 Nov, 7 Feb, 7 May.
Timeline
When does it apply to you?
The thresholds are gross self-employment income — what you invoice, before deducting materials, fuel, etc.
Live now
£50,000+
April 2026
Self-employment income over £50k. You should be filing already.
Next
£30,000+
April 2027
Threshold drops. More sole traders brought in scope.
After that
£20,000+
April 2028
Most self-employed tradespeople become mandatory.
The basics
What changes under MTD ITSA.
You must
- Keep digital records of all income and expenses
- Submit quarterly updates (every 3 months)
- File annual final declaration by 31 January
- Use software that’s compatible with Making Tax Digital
You can’t
- Keep paper-only records
- Use only manual spreadsheets
- File through the HMRC website
- Wait until January to deal with tax
The reality
The MTD problem for trades.
MTD requires you to record every job digitally, immediately. Not at the end of the week. Not when you remember. Every job.
Traditional accounting software expects you to sit at a computer and type in invoices. But when you’re:
- · Finishing a job at 5pm and heading straight to the next one
- · Covered in dust, paint, or grease
- · Just trying to get home
…will you really open accounting software and fill in forms? That’s exactly why MTD has been called a nightmare for busy tradespeople — and exactly why we built voice-to-invoice.
What we cover
The complete MTD picture.
✓ Live in Honest Invoices today
- Digital invoice records
- Income tracking & summaries
- Customer records
- VAT calculations (if registered)
⏳ Built & tested in HMRC sandbox
- Quarterly cumulative submissions via HMRC MTD APIs
- BSAS retrieve / adjust / list
- Tax calculation trigger & retrieve
- Final Declaration submission
Filing to HMRC from Honest Invoices is coming soon.
You’ll also need
- Expense tracking (materials, fuel, mileage)
- Receipt capture & categorisation
- Bank feed for transactions
Receipt Vault is our upcoming companion product that handles the expense side. Join the waitlist →
Supported income types
Honest Invoices currently supports self-employment income only. For software supporting property/UK rental income or other income types, visit gov.uk find-software guide.
Wondering if you can opt out?
MTD ITSA has a digital-exclusion exemption — but the rules are narrower than most people think, and there are two traps that catch genuine applicants. Read our honest guide — the four grounds HMRC accepts, the four it explicitly rejects, and the “agent trap”.
Need to check your turnover?
The threshold is gross income, not profit. If you invoice £55,000 with £20,000 expenses (£35k profit), you’re still over the £50k MTD threshold. Check which wave applies to you.
Build the digital habit now.
Every invoice you record today is one more digital record HMRC will be happy with. Start before the deadline forces you to.
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