We Balance Bookkeeping

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?

20/08/2026

It’s finally in print.

Don’t Let HMRC Catch You Out

Hannah Miller and I wrote it for the sole traders and landlords heading into without an accountant or bookkeeper behind them.

And there are a lot of them.

People who have filed their own tax returns competently for years but who now face quarterly updates, digital record keeping and software they may never have used before.

Much of the guidance out there is either written for professionals or written to sell you something.

So we wrote a readable version that’s simple to understand.

We explain:

✅ What Making Tax Digital actually requires

✅ Whether you’re affected, and when

✅ What a quarterly update involves

✅ Which records you legally need to keep

✅ How to get set up without it becoming overwhelming

✅ Accounting software and bridging software — and how to choose what actually suits you, rather than what is simply being advertised at you

✅ The final declaration, taxes, dealing with HMRC and bookkeeping basics.

Basically, the stuff we think you actually need to know.

It’s on pre-release on Amazon now for just 99p.

Link in the comments.

And if you know a sole trader or landlord who is starting to panic about Making Tax Digital, please point them towards it. That’s exactly who we wrote it for.

13/08/2026

864,000 taxpayers should have filed their first quarterly update under Making Tax Digital. Only 436,000 did.

That leaves 428,000 people with a problem.

MTD is not going away and HMRC are not going to quietly ignore those 428,000 tax payers. Anyone who should be signed up and is not will be signed up automatically in September by HMRC.

Those taxpayers are now already behind. The first quarter has been missed, so not signing up has not kept anyone out of the system. It has just meant starting it on the back foot with catching up to do.

If you should be in MTD and you missed that first filing, please don’t sit on it hoping HMRC will lose interest. They won’t.

Speak to me. I’ll work out what should have been filed, what needs putting right and get you set up so the rest of the year is as painless as possible.

It is far easier to sort out one missed deadline now than four of them later.

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?

14/06/2026

Scotland won their first World Cup match last night and I loved waking up to that news.

A 1-0 win over Haiti in Boston and Scotland sitting top of the group.  For a nation that hasn’t been at a World Cup since 1998, that is not nothing.

If I link this to bookkeeping, and I will, Scotland didn’t just turn up last night. They qualified through years of rebuilding, got their systems right, stopped winging it and started planning properly. That is what happens when the groundwork is done.

Your finances work the same way. The people who feel calm at tax time are not naturally more organised than you. They just stopped leaving it to chance, got a system in place and stopped starting from zero every January.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to be done properly.

If your books are currently sitting in a pile, now is a good time to change that. MTD is coming for sole traders and the groundwork really does matter.

Come on Scotland and England next week 😊

And if your bookkeeping needs sorting, you know where I am.

13/06/2026

Football fixtures and hmrc deadlines not to be missed 😊

This summer, there are plenty of ⚽ fixtures to look forward to.

And a few penalties you'll want to avoid 🫣

Here's a handy reminder of the key games and a few HMRC deadlines worth keeping an eye on.

29/04/2026

❓ Do you need to do a Self Assessment tax return?

I get asked this all the time — and the truth is, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer.

It depends on how you earn your income, and whether HMRC expects you to report it.

I’ve broken it down in this carousel in a simple, no-jargon way so you can quickly see if it might apply to you.

And if you’re still unsure — I’ve got you. Link in bio 👆

27/04/2026

💡 Myth buster

“Cash in hand doesn’t need declaring.”

Fact: All income must be declared to HMRC — regardless of how it’s paid (cash, bank transfer, card, etc).

The only exception is if your total trading income is under the £1,000 trading allowance in a tax year.

Once you go over that threshold, everything needs to be declared.

If you’re earning it, it counts.

Not sure what applies to you? That’s exactly what I help with — link in bio 👆

26/04/2026

You didn’t start your business to stress over numbers.

If your bookkeeping is behind, confusing, or just something you keep putting off… you’re not alone.

A clarity call is a chance to talk it through, get clear on where you stand, and understand what to do next.

No pressure. No jargon. Just honest help.

👉 Message me to book yours.

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