Why I’m moving from compliance towards training

For the last 17 years, I’ve been self-employed running my own accountancy practice. Here’s why I’m scaling back the amount of “done-for-you” compliance work that I do.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax has been on the cards for 8 years now. That’s given me plenty of time to plan and prepare.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is a huge change, not just for self-employed people and landlords, but for their accountants too. In addition to having to complete an annual Tax Return within 10 months of the end of the tax year, taxpayers – or their accountants – will also have to submit interim self-employed and rental figures to HMRC four times a year within 5 weeks of the quarter end.

Here’s a reminder of when Making Tax Digital might apply to you:

• If your combined income from self-employment and property was over £50,000 when you completed your 2024-25 Tax Return, you need to be complying with Making Tax Digital starting from April 2026 – that’s now!
• If your combined income when you complete your 2025-26 Tax Return is over £30,000, you will need to comply with Making Tax Digital from April 2027.
• If your income for the current tax 2026-27 year is over £20,000 by next 5th April, you will need to comply from April 2028.

Impact of Making Tax Digital

My concern has always been the impact that Making Tax Digital is going to have on the taxpayers with the smallest businesses. At one point, HMRC were talking about applying Making Tax Digital to anyone with income (before deducting expenses) of over £10,000. Thankfully – for now – the income threshold has been increased to £20,000.

But that still means, if you’re self-employed or a landlord with combined income of over £20,000, at some point in the next 2 years you are going to have to start keeping digital records and submit your figures to HMRC on a quarterly basis.

It’s hugely important to me that people don’t feel forced to sign up for expensive software packages if they don’t need to, so I’ve spent the last year exploring free and low-cost ways that people can keep their bookkeeping records and still comply with the new rules. At whatever point Making Tax Digital applies to you, my aim is to make your transition from Self Assessment as smooth and painless as possible.

Making Tax Digital in practice

In July 2025, I signed up to Thomson Reuters Digita Making Tax Digital for Income Tax pilot. Digita is the tax software that I use to submit Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital returns on behalf of my clients. It comes with inbuilt bridging software, which means it can import figures directly from Excel spreadsheets and .csv files.

One of the biggest advantages for me of taking part in the pilot has been to prove that people may not necessarily have to move away from spreadsheets or software packages they are comfortable with just because of MTD. If your bookkeeping software can export a summary in an MTD-compatible format (.csv or Excel), or if your spreadsheet contains all the information that HMRC require, then you will be able to comply with MTD by using bridging software instead.

DIY Bookkeeping and Making Tax Digital support

I’ve recently set up the Springreach DIY Bookkeeping Community, an online support group for self-employed people who do their own bookkeeping. With 30+ years’ experience in bookkeeping and Self Assessment compliance, I’ll be providing Q&A support and training on bookkeeping, spreadsheets, software, Making Tax Digital quarterly updates and the self-employed pages of your Self Assessment Tax Return.

Doing your own bookkeeping won’t be the right decision for everyone – but if it’s something you’d like to explore, especially with Making Tax Digital on the horizon, why not give the Springreach DIY Bookkeeping Community a look?