The short answer is – yes, you can – but here are some factors to consider: Which tax system are you in? If you’re in Self Assessment, spreadsheets are absolutely fine. You can keep your records in a spreadsheet and manually transfer the totals onto your tax return once a year. If HMRC have moved…
Read more
I disagree. If you run your own business, it should be your choice who does your bookkeeping. Doing it yourself might be the right decision for you, it might not be. If the thought of doing your own bookkeeping appeals to you, here are some questions you can ask yourself. Bookkeeping can be time-consuming. Even…
Read more
Self-employed individuals and landlords who showed a gross income of over £50,000 on their 2024-25 tax return – that’s before deducting expenses – must comply with the new Making Tax Digital for Income Tax rules from 6 April 2026. If this applies to you, you should have received a letter telling you that you’ll need…
Read more
The run up to yesterday’s budget was chaotic. Widespread scaremongering about tax rises and VAT registration threshold drops caused a lot of uncertainty, but the 2025 Autumn Budget could have been a lot worse for self-employed people. Income tax, National Insurance and VAT The freeze in income tax and National Insurance (NI) thresholds has been…
Read more
Tales of the Tramuntana Mallorca – March 2025 Sometimes, when you’re in the middle of something long or challenging, it can be easy to lose sight of how far you’ve come. I was fortunate enough to visit Mallorca earlier this year. The Serra de Tramuntana (Tramuntana mountains) and the GR221 long distance hiking trail that…
Read more
A brief history of Self Assessment Self Assessment was first introduced in 1995-96. At that point, the tax system changed from working on a “preceding year basis of assessment” to a current year basis, which reduced the delay between a sole trader earning the profits and finding out how much tax was due. Under the…
Read more
Introduction Making Tax Digital (MTD) is a new way for sole traders and landlords to report their income and expenses to HMRC. Anyone who had business turnover and/or rental income of £50,000 or more in the 2024-25 tax year, before allowing for any expenses, will need to use MTD from 6th April 2026. MTD will…
Read more
Introduction Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) has been on the cards for a while. In 2015, when HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) first proposed it, it was due to be introduced in April 2018. Successive delays, not helped by Covid and Brexit, pushed the implementation date back to April 2026. Making Tax Digital…
Read more
Why the Orwell Bridge? It was just by chance that I stumbled across Lee Rudland’s magnificent photograph of The Orwell Bridge at twilight. Scrolling through pages of images brought up by a Google search for “dawn of a new era” – which Google seems to think includes sunset as well as sunrise – I was…
Read more