MTD for sole traders, without the accounting software
You run a trade, not an accounts department. QuarterFile keeps the digital records HMRC now requires and files your quarterly update (the summary HMRC now wants four times a year) from your bank statement. You just confirm the categories.
HMRC recognition is in progress: filing opens for the 7 February 2027 quarter, and you can check your MTD date and join the reminder list today.
An illustration of the QuarterFile dashboard showing the current quarter, Q2, running from 6 July 2026 to 5 October 2026, with a filing deadline of 7 November 2026. It shows confirmed income and expense totals, a checklist confirming the quarter is ready, and a single button to review and file. The figures shown are examples.
Self-employment (SA103, the self-employment pages of your tax return)
Plain-English categories
Your expenses map to the self-employment categories HMRC expects, no accountancy jargon:
- Goods and materials
- Payments to subcontractors
- Staff wages and costs
- Van, car and travel
- Premises: rent, rates, power
- Repairs and maintenance
- Office and admin
- Advertising and marketing
- Bank and loan interest
- Accountancy, legal and professional
- Other allowable expenses
A side business counts too
MTD is based on gross income, not profit, and your trade and any rental income count towards the same total. The checker adds it up for you.
Keep your accountant, skip the suite
Plenty of sole traders file their own quarters and hand the year-end to their accountant. QuarterFile covers the quarterly part for £12.50 a quarter, first quarter free, and your records export any time. Free does the same filings by hand.
See pricingSole trader questions
What sole traders ask first
Is MTD based on my profit or my turnover?
Turnover, or more precisely your gross income before expenses. A trade turning over £34,000 with £14,000 of costs makes £20,000 of profit, but £34,000 is the number HMRC measures you against, so it lands in the April 2027 wave (more than £30,000) rather than staying out of scope. Rental income counts towards the same total. The two-minute checker works it out from your figures.
I have a job as well as my trade. Does my salary count?
No. Employment income taxed through PAYE isn’t part of the qualifying income that decides whether MTD applies to you: only self-employment and property income count. So a £45,000 salary alongside £22,000 of self-employed work puts you in the April 2027 wave on the £22,000, not the £67,000. You’d file quarterly updates for the trade only.
What if I have a quiet quarter with nothing to report?
You still send the update, and it takes seconds. A quarterly update with a few lines in it is quick, and because updates are cumulative the next one carries the year so far anyway. A genuinely empty quarter (no income and no expenses at all) is the one case QuarterFile stops and asks you to email support first, so nobody files an empty update by accident. Whether a loss-making year is worth anything to you is worked out at the year end, not in the quarters, and it’s a question for your accountant.
Your trade, your quarter
The side trade that grew.
It got big enough for HMRC to want four updates a year. It doesn’t have to get big enough for accounting software.
Just want the dates?
One email, 7 days before each quarterly deadline. No account, no software sign-up, nothing else ever.
We store your email address to send one reminder before each quarterly deadline, until you unsubscribe. Nothing else. How we handle your data.