We Balance Bookkeeping

24/10/2026

If you run a small business, you would be forgiven for reading this week's headlines and thinking help is finally on the way. The government says it is cutting red tape and will save businesses almost £800 million a year. Don't get too excited.

I've read the full announcement. Most of the savings go to larger companies, asset managers, property businesses and importers. Nothing reduces the admin of self assessment, VAT returns or Making Tax Digital.

The one useful change is at Companies House. The smallest limited companies will no longer face filing their full profit and loss accounts for now, which saves an extra job and keeps your figures private.

For most of my clients nothing changes. It makes a great headline for the Prime Minister but it does very little for small businesses.

If MTD feels like one more thing you haven't got time for, get in touch and I’ll get your records set up properly so it stops being a worry.

British businesses will get a bit more breathing space as the Chancellor announces new plans to slash the red tape choking firms.

21/10/2026

Your next Making Tax Digital update is due 7 November 2026.

If you're a sole trader or landlord with income over £50,000, your second Making Tax Digital quarterly update is due by 7 November. It covers your income and expenses from 6 July to 5 October.

This isn't a tax return and you won't pay any tax when you submit it. It's a summary of what has come in and gone out, sent to HMRC through your bookkeeping software.

Before you submit, check that every bank transaction has been categorised, that your income matches what you actually received and that your receipts are attached. A few minutes checking now saves a messy correction later.

HMRC has said it won't issue penalties for missed quarterly updates in this first year. That doesn't make it optional. Getting into the habit now means you'll be ready when penalty points start to count.

If you missed the August update, haven't signed up yet or aren't sure where you stand, get in touch. I help sole traders and landlords in Milton Keynes set up MTD properly and stay on top of it every quarter.

15/10/2026

Did you know that once you're in Making Tax Digital you can no longer use HMRC's own website to file your tax return?

For years most sole traders and landlords have logged into their HMRC online account in January, typed in their figures and pressed submit. Once MTD applies to you that option disappears. HMRC does not provide its own software for MTD, so your quarterly updates and your year end tax return both have to go through compatible third party software.

This catches people out because they assume the quarterly updates are the only thing that changes. What this actually means is that the whole process moves into software, from the records you keep during the year right through to the final return.

There's another detail worth knowing. Not every product on HMRC's approved list can do everything. Some only send the quarterly updates and can't submit the final tax return. If you pick the cheapest option without checking you could find out in January that it can't finish the job.

If your qualifying income from self employment or property was over £50,000 in 2024/25 you're already in MTD from this April. If it was over £30,000 in 2025/26 you'll be joining from April 2027.

The sensible thing is to sort your software out well before you need it and make sure it covers the full year. If you're not sure where you stand or which software is right for you, send me a message and we'll go through it properly. Or join us in The Books Club where we cover exactly this type of thing.

12/10/2026

Are you navigating Making Tax Digital on your own?

We can help 🙌.

We Balance Bookkeeping and Chipperfield Accounting Ltd have set up a free group called The Books Club and it's now open to join.

It's for sole traders and landlords working through Making Tax Digital without an accountant or bookkeeper behind them.

A place to ask the questions you'd feel daft asking anywhere else.

If Making Tax Digital affects you or you think it might, come and join us 😊

Link in the comments.

02/10/2026

Started working for yourself or began earning rental income between 6 April 2025 and 5 April 2026? You will probably need to register for Self Assessment with HMRC by Monday 5 October.

This is one of the deadlines people miss most often, usually because nobody told them it existed. Registering is straightforward and once it is done HMRC will send you a Unique Taxpayer Reference, which you need before you can file your first tax return in January.

If you are not sure whether this applies to you, or you have registered but have no idea what comes next, book a free 15 minute call. As a bookkeeper in Milton Keynes I help new sole traders and landlords get set up properly so their first tax return is calm and on time.

30/09/2026

Today's the day. Don't Let HMRC Catch You Out is officially out.

Hannah Miller FCA CTA and I wrote this book because we kept having the same conversations with sole traders and landlords. Capable people who have handled their own tax returns for years now feel unsure about what Making Tax Digital means for them and worried they will get it wrong.

For anyone with qualifying income over £50,000, MTD is no longer something coming down the line. It started in April and the next quarterly update is due on 7 November. For those over £30,000, it arrives in April 2027. That gives you time to get set up properly, but only if you start now rather than next spring.

The book is written in plain English for people who want to understand what they need to do and get on with it. No jargon, no scaremongering and no pushing you towards software you don't need.

Thank you to everyone who bought a copy during pre-release. The support has been lovely and it means a great deal to both of us.

The printed version is now available to order on Amazon.

If you know someone who has been putting off thinking about MTD, please let them know about it. It might save them a lot of stress later.

16/09/2026

I have some exciting news to share.

We Balance Bookkeeping is a finalist in not one but two categories at the LUCA Awards.

Best Client Experience and Small Practice of the Year.

The awards are run by the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB), my professional body, and with so many brilliant practices entering I still can't quite believe it.

The one I am most proud of is Best Client Experience. Looking after my clients well is the reason I do what I do and why I set the practice up the way I have.

Many of my clients took the time to write a recommendation or review and I am truly grateful. I know how busy life gets, so thank you.

Institute of Certified Bookkeepers

27/08/2026

If you're a subcontractor who has just filed your first update, please check one thing. Did you record and submit what you invoiced or what you were paid?

A few subcontractors have come to me recently after filing their first MTD quarterly update in accounting software. They suspected the income figure filed was wrong and the tax calculated with it. It was, by 20%.

They had recorded sales based on money received into the bank rather than the amount on the sales invoice.

Under CIS most contractors deduct 20% tax at source and pay it over to HMRC, so the amount received into the bank is lower than the amount invoiced. Turnover was understated across the whole quarter.

Two things caused it. They were raising invoices outside of their accounting software, so the software had no record of gross invoice values or deductions. Then when the money arrived into the bank they didn't know how to record the full sale in the software and account for the CIS tax suffered.

There’s an easy fix. Raise all sales invoices in the accounting software you use. Most good ones have a CIS function that accounts for the tax correctly and puts it on your balance sheet until year end.

I expect to see a lot of this over the coming quarters. Subcontractors whose records went in once a year, prepared properly from invoices, are now moving into MTD and onto software they've never used, with no guidance on how CIS deductions should be treated.

Software isn't the problem. Software nobody has been shown how to set up correctly is the problem.

If you work under CIS, check how your deductions are being recorded before the next update is due rather than after four quarters have gone in incorrectly.

If you're not sure how to use the software and record your income accurately, get help now rather than after three more updates have gone in wrong.

If you want someone to check it before the next update drop me a message.

Yes, that’s me in a yellow hard hat holding a drill. It’s AI generated. You’re unlikely to see me in this get up as I’m rubbish at DIY, but I’m very good at tax returns and bookkeeping.

21/08/2026

It’s interesting how tax can manipulate behaviour.

Ricky Gervais and Jane Fallon met in 1982. Forty four years together, no wedding, no children and he’s spent most of that time saying marriage is pointless.

Now he’s thinking about it. He told Saga magazine it wouldn’t be for love. It would be for inheritance tax.

Shared money, shared home, a life most married couples would envy. But HMRC doesn’t care about any of that. There’s no such thing as common law marriage in this country and it doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived together.

Anything you leave to a husband, wife or civil partner passes free of inheritance tax. Anything you leave to a partner doesn’t.

That single difference is enough to make a man who has spent forty four years dismissing marriage start thinking about proposing.

That’s the government incentivising a behaviour with a tax break and it works.

Making Tax Digital is the same idea from the other direction. The government wants self employed people to be more organised with their records and it wants an earlier view of what people are earning rather than waiting for the January scramble. Quarterly updates achieve both.

This time though there’s no tax break attached. Just penalties if you don’t keep up.

Which does feel a bit one sided when you’re the one absorbing the extra admin and software costs.

One gets a carrot, the other gets a stick!

For sole traders, being organised is no longer optional and the only real choice left is whether you get there before the penalties do or after.

Are you ready for and how are you feeling about it?

07/07/2026

The first Making Tax Digital deadline has arrived and if you're a sole trader or landlord now in the system here's what you actually need to do.

The first submission is simply a summary of your income and expenses for the quarter. It is not a tax return and no tax needs to be calculated at this stage, although some software will show you an estimated figure.

Before you can report you need compatible software in place. If you're using accounting software make sure the bank is reconciled, all sales invoices are entered, all business expenses are included and any personal spending is excluded.

Your first quarterly update is due by 7 August 2026. It covers the first quarter and includes your total turnover to date, totals for each expense category and a profit figure.

HMRC has introduced a soft landing for those joining from 6 April 2026, which means no penalty points for late quarterly updates during this first year. Every update still has to be filed though, because you cannot submit your final declaration until all four are in.

The final declaration for 2026/27 is due by 31 January 2028. That deadline still carries penalties, along with any tax paid late, so it is the one not to miss.

If you need a hand with any of this, drop me a message. I'm pretty good at this stuff.

Where are you up to with your first update, sorted and ready to file, or still working out where to start?