From April 2026, HMRC requires self-employed people earning over £50,000 to keep digital records and send quarterly updates using compatible software. Ovaro is built around that workflow — invoices, expenses, mileage and quarterly summaries in one place, ready for your accountant or your own filing.
Key dates
April 2026
Income over £50,000
Sole traders & landlords with combined self-employment and property income above £50,000.
April 2027
Income over £30,000
Threshold drops — more sole traders enter MTD for Income Tax.
April 2028
Income over £20,000
Threshold drops again, expected to capture most UK self-employed people.
How Ovaro covers it
Every invoice, expense, mileage trip and receipt is stored digitally the moment you create it — no spreadsheet exports, no bridging software.
Income and expense totals are continuously rolled up by HMRC category, so your quarterly update is ready when the deadline lands.
Expenses are tagged to the categories HMRC expects on Self Assessment and MTD updates — no re-mapping at year-end.
Track VAT on invoices and expenses at 0%, 5% and 20%. Produce VAT-period summaries to file or hand to your accountant.
Scan receipts in seconds and log business mileage with HMRC's approved rates baked in.
Clean CSV export at any point, so your accountant can file your final declaration without rebuilding your year.
FAQ
Making Tax Digital is HMRC's plan to move UK tax reporting online. It requires sole traders, landlords and businesses to keep digital records and submit updates to HMRC using compatible software instead of paper or spreadsheets.
From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with combined self-employment and property income above £50,000 must use MTD-compatible software. The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027, and to £20,000 from April 2028.
Yes. Once you're inside the MTD for Income Tax threshold, you must keep digital records and send quarterly updates plus a final declaration to HMRC using compatible software. Spreadsheets only count if they're linked to bridging software.
Ovaro is built around the MTD workflow — digital records by default, quarterly summaries in HMRC's expense categories, VAT support, and clean export to your accountant. You stay in control of submissions; we make the underlying data correct and ready.
HMRC operates a points-based penalty system for missed quarterly updates and late final declarations. Penalties scale with repeated misses, so staying on top of quarterly updates is the cheapest path.
Yes. Ovaro tracks VAT on invoices and expenses, supports the standard 20% and reduced 5% rates, and produces VAT-period summaries you or your accountant can file.
Create your first invoice end-to-end for free, keep digital records from day one, and walk into April 2026 with quarterly updates already prepared.