Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
Making Tax Digital for Income TaxView supported quarterly updates →
HMRC granted Trade PA production access for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax on 1 October 2026. Quarterly updates are now available on the Trade PA website for eligible sole traders, including VAT-registered traders.
Where this is up to
VAT submissions and CIS contractor filing are not included in this approval. We will enable each service only after its separate approval and release checks.
What is changing
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax adds digital record keeping and quarterly updates alongside the annual tax return. It starts on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, then extends to over £30,000 from April 2027 and over £20,000 from April 2028.
In practice it means two things. Your income and expenses have to be recorded digitally as you go, not reconstructed from a carrier bag of receipts in January. And you send HMRC a summary every quarter using software that connects to them.
The four updates
Each update covers the tax year to date. These are the standard update periods and deadlines.
| Quarter | Period covered | Update due |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 6 April to 5 July | 7 August |
| Q2 | 6 April to 5 October | 7 November |
| Q3 | 6 April to 5 January | 7 February |
| Q4 | 6 April to 5 April | 7 May |
The Income Tax screen shows the quarterly deadlines returned by HMRC.
The quarterly-update workflow
Your records build themselves
Every invoice you raise and every receipt you log in Trade PA is already a digital record. The quarterly review groups eligible records into HMRC expense categories. Missing payment dates and uncategorised expenses must be corrected before sending.
- Income from your invoices, including CIS invoices
- Expenses categorised to the SA103 boxes
- Mileage, materials and subcontractor payments
One screen for your tax position
This release supports one self-employment business using cash basis accounting, standard quarters and the current tax year. It includes non-VAT-registered traders, VAT-exclusive accounts, VAT-inclusive cash accounts and the VAT-inclusive cash treatment of the Flat Rate Scheme. Check the accounting treatment and each cost against your records. Property income and multiple businesses require other compatible software.
You approve every submission
You see the figures before anything is sent to HMRC. Nothing is filed automatically and the voice assistant never files on your behalf. You tap submit, or you do not. The submission record retains the figures sent and HMRC’s response.
Your records leave with you
One button in Settings exports everything Trade PA holds for you as spreadsheets: customers, invoices, quotes, jobs, expenses, materials, mileage, subcontractor payments and CIS statements. Yours to keep, or to hand to an accountant, whether or not you stay with us.
Connecting to HMRC
You link Trade PA to HMRC once, using your own Government Gateway login on HMRC's own site. Trade PA never sees your Gateway password. You can disconnect from the Income Tax screen.
What Trade PA does not do yet
Trade PA already supports digital record keeping. The Income Tax release covers quarterly updates only. It does not handle your end of year submissions or the Final Declaration that finishes off your tax year. You will need your accountant or other compatible software for that step.
Making Tax Digital for VAT is in development and will follow its own HMRC recognition process. Trade PA already tracks VAT on sales and purchases through the quarter.
Built for the trades
Trade PA is job management and bookkeeping software for UK sole traders and small contracting firms. Quotes, invoices, job cards, RAMS, expenses, mileage and CIS, with a voice assistant so you can get a receipt or a job logged from the van instead of typing on a phone in someone's loft.
The tax side is not bolted on. It reads the same records you were already keeping to run the business, which is the whole point of keeping them.
Not tax advice
Figures shown in Trade PA are estimates based on the records you enter and, where available, HMRC's own calculation. They are not a substitute for advice from an accountant, and thresholds and rules can change. Check gov.uk for the current position, or ask your accountant. Our Terms of Service set out where responsibility for your tax sits.