[The Jester of Wibbly]

My digital system is now set up, no more paperwork, completely paperless now.

All receipts, invoices and Statements are now stored digital on my cloud.   

All I need to do now is decide on by Bridging Software to submit quarterly figures when the time comes.  I've already worked out which software to use, but I wouldn't be surprised if more options become available in 2026. 

I won't need the software until 2027, but I am now all set up ready to report, record, link and transfer those figures they want quartlity to the bridging software. .....Might as well get into the habit of going 100%  digital now rather than last minute panic.

[NBwcs]

I'm definitely waiting for a last minute panic, maybe a few more delays or even u turns yet. 

[dazmond]

My digital system is now set up, no more paperwork, completely paperless now.

All receipts, invoices and Statements are now stored digital on my cloud.   

All I need to do now is decide on by Bridging Software to submit quarterly figures when the time comes.  I've already worked out which software to use, but I wouldn't be surprised if more options become available in 2026. 

I won't need the software until 2027, but I am now all set up ready to report, record, link and transfer those figures they want quartlity to the bridging software. .....Might as well get into the habit of going 100%  digital now rather than last minute panic.

Cleaner planner already has all the data needed for quarterly reporting as I update my app/main site every single day. I also keep all paper receipts for my business expenses in a plastic folder for that tax year and have done for years now.

The only difference when MTD comes into force is that I need government approved software to input figures(turnover,expenses,profit for that quarter)which is easily available in cleaner planner.

You don't need to have digital records of every expense!As long as you have proof (whether its digital or paper) is all you need and that's only if you have a tax investigation!

[CleanClear]

You don't need to have digital records of every expense!As long as you have proof (whether its digital or paper) is all you need and that's only if you have a tax investigation!

? I'm confused with what you are saying.




The clue is MAKING TAX DIGITAL...........

It is very probably as simple as entering....... Insurance payment £60 on Monday 30th June, 2025 .
But thats what needs to be done as far as i can see.
  If you don't have a digital record of every expense, when and how are you going to submit them ? Just a lump sum quarterly ? I wouldn't think so.

[dazmond]

You don't input every single expense  into bridging software! All HMRC want is total expenses,turnover and profit FOR THAT QUARTER!

eg

April/May/June

Turnover(cash basis) £12,000
Expenses  £3000
Profit £9000

That's it!

Cleaner planner already stores all my data from every single expense/payment from that quarter (and I have all the paper and digital receipts to prove it if I was ever investigated!)

[The Jester of Wibbly]

You don't need to have digital records of every expense!As long as you have proof (whether its digital or paper) is all you need and that's only if you have a tax investigation!

? I'm confused with what you are saying.




The clue is MAKING TAX DIGITAL...........

It is very probably as simple as entering....... Insurance payment £60 on Monday 30th June, 2025 .
But thats what needs to be done as far as i can see.
  If you don't have a digital record of every expense, when and how are you going to submit them ? Just a lump sum quarterly ? I wouldn't think so.

I've covered this topic before.   As Daz said, you only need to submit Turnover, Expenses and Profit using your bridging software.   It's the full dedicated MTD software like QuickBooks that need everything recorded.  But they will also only send the basic requirements to HMRC. 

As most of us already have digital software for our business, even if it's just a spreadsheet, all you need is bridgeing software to send your quarterly figures.  It is your responsibility to recorded digitally all your expenses making them available should HMRC ever want to see them.

The other thing to think about with Bridging software is that the figures to send to it need to be digitally linked to  your own source.    Not sure how CP will handle that, but for most you will probably need a basic spreadsheet set up to show your quarterly results of turnover, expenses and profit.   Maybe monthly amounts totalled up for each quarter.   Those three total cells then need to be transposed to the bridging software.

In a nut shell, it means if you make a change to your spreadsheet, it will automatically amend the bridging software figures.  It's there to stop you messing around afterwards and prevent blame to the Bridging Company from tampering afterwards.

That's why for simplicity, a separate Spreadsheet for quality figures should be created ready for the Bridge.  But make sure you make any amendments before final submission are corrected on the Spreadsheet and your bridging software.

Take a look at this video....

https://youtu.be/LIMkqtTGbJ8?si=FOC57lbrUW87rLvI

[CleanClear]

You don't input every single expense  into bridging software! All HMRC want is total expenses,turnover and profit FOR THAT QUARTER!

eg

April/May/June

Turnover(cash basis) £12,000
Expenses  £3000
Profit £9000

That's it!

Cleaner planner already stores all my data from every single expense/payment from that quarter (and I have all the paper and digital receipts to prove it if I was ever investigated!)

I'm understanding what you are saying now. But you did say you don't need digital records of every expense. Now you have them. You're now saying you don't input every single expense.

 So digital records of expenses will be created and retained and just like now with the paper tax submission you can still give your expenses as a total figure.

[dazmond]

You don't input every single expense  into bridging software! All HMRC want is total expenses,turnover and profit FOR THAT QUARTER!

eg

April/May/June

Turnover(cash basis) £12,000
Expenses  £3000
Profit £9000

That's it!

Cleaner planner already stores all my data from every single expense/payment from that quarter (and I have all the paper and digital receipts to prove it if I was ever investigated!)

I'm understanding what you are saying now. But you did say you don't need digital records of every expense. Now you have them. You're now saying you don't input every single expense.

 So digital records of expenses will be created and retained and just like now with the paper tax submission you can still give your expenses as a total figure.

Yes

[The Jester of Wibbly]

You still now need to to keep all expenses recorded digitaly.  Paperwork will be a thing of the past.   

HMRC can request digital copies any time they want.
That's how HMRC will now roll.  If you get investigated or your spot checked, you won't need to pay them a visit.  You'll be asked for what documents they want to check, they will open a portal for you to upload your digital files.  They then check tnem.

It's to simplify things for HMRC.

Also a little hack to make it simple to find expense recipes is to store them on your cloud and link them directly to your full expense spreadsheet.   Click on the expense and up pops your receipt.

[JandS]

Will be making sure my qualifying income is below £20,000........or is it all income like state pension etc.

[The Jester of Wibbly]

Will be making sure my qualifying income is below £20,000........or is it all income like state pension etc.

It's your business turnover. 

The extra declarations for pensions and interest are done on the final declaration

[AuRavelling79]

Will be making sure my qualifying income is below £20,000........or is it all income like state pension etc.

It's self employed income and any rental income. Not pension - state or private.

Doesn't apply yet if you are in a partnership.

[dazmond]

You still now need to to keep all expenses recorded digitaly.  Paperwork will be a thing of the past.   

HMRC can request digital copies any time they want.
That's how HMRC will now roll.  If you get investigated or your spot checked, you won't need to pay them a visit.  You'll be asked for what documents they want to check, they will open a portal for you to upload your digital files.  They then check tnem.

It's to simplify things for HMRC.

Also a little hack to make it simple to find expense recipes is to store them on your cloud and link them directly to your full expense spreadsheet.   Click on the expense and up pops your receipt.

I'm sure you'll be able to screenshot expense invoices if need be....or even photos of paper receipts or even download bank statements.

Remember this is ONLY if you get a spot check or investigation. HMRC are not interested otherwise.

Turnover
Expenses
Profit

And the evidence to back it up is all that's required.

I do need to store evidence of all my business expenses digitally for my own peace of mind instead of paper receipts/invoices in a plastic folder for that tax year. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet.....

[The Jester of Wibbly]

You still now need to to keep all expenses recorded digitaly.  Paperwork will be a thing of the past.   

HMRC can request digital copies any time they want.
That's how HMRC will now roll.  If you get investigated or your spot checked, you won't need to pay them a visit.  You'll be asked for what documents they want to check, they will open a portal for you to upload your digital files.  They then check tnem.

It's to simplify things for HMRC.

Also a little hack to make it simple to find expense recipes is to store them on your cloud and link them directly to your full expense spreadsheet.   Click on the expense and up pops your receipt.

I'm sure you'll be able to screenshot expense invoices if need be....or even photos of paper receipts or even download bank statements.

Remember this is ONLY if you get a spot check or investigation. HMRC are not interested otherwise.

Turnover
Expenses
Profit

And the evidence to back it up is all that's required.

I do need to store evidence of all my business expenses digitally for my own peace of mind instead of paper receipts/invoices in a plastic folder for that tax year. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet.....

Yes absolutely correct.  I am now just taking photos, for example, diesel receipt, them immediately uploading to my cloud stored in monthly folders per year. (I always find till receipts fade after a couple of years anyway) I then enter them into my spreadsheet linking the cell to the actual receipt.  I have gone paperless with my bank, so I just download them from my app, then upload them to my cloud.  Any electronic invoices from purchases go straight into my monthly folder too, again digitally linking it to my spreadsheet.    Every month I get a monthly invoice from Sumup and Go Cardless, and once again follow the same method.

Don't forget online banks now only store your statements for no more than two years, so don't get caught out.

Keeping digital copies of everything will become law once you've gone MTD.  However there is nothing stopping you from also keeping hard copies of it helps you, but would be a wasted exercise to make a habit of.

So it's worth getting used to the practice as soon as possible so it's not daunting and huge changes when the time comes.  I am sure there will be a couple of last minute people panicking.  So get rid of future anxiety and start planning now.

I now have zero paperwork, no more printing and filing. It's so much easier.

[dazmond]

You still now need to to keep all expenses recorded digitaly.  Paperwork will be a thing of the past.   

HMRC can request digital copies any time they want.
That's how HMRC will now roll.  If you get investigated or your spot checked, you won't need to pay them a visit.  You'll be asked for what documents they want to check, they will open a portal for you to upload your digital files.  They then check tnem.

It's to simplify things for HMRC.

Also a little hack to make it simple to find expense recipes is to store them on your cloud and link them directly to your full expense spreadsheet.   Click on the expense and up pops your receipt.

I'm sure you'll be able to screenshot expense invoices if need be....or even photos of paper receipts or even download bank statements.

Remember this is ONLY if you get a spot check or investigation. HMRC are not interested otherwise.

Turnover
Expenses
Profit

And the evidence to back it up is all that's required.

I do need to store evidence of all my business expenses digitally for my own peace of mind instead of paper receipts/invoices in a plastic folder for that tax year. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet.....

Yes absolutely correct.  I am now just taking photos, for example, diesel receipt, them immediately uploading to my cloud stored in monthly folders per year. (I always find till receipts fade after a couple of years anyway) I then enter them into my spreadsheet linking the cell to the actual receipt.  I have gone paperless with my bank, so I just download them from my app, then upload them to my cloud.  Any electronic invoices from purchases go straight into my monthly folder too, again digitally linking it to my spreadsheet.    Every month I get a monthly invoice from Sumup and Go Cardless, and once again follow the same method.

Don't forget online banks now only store your statements for no more than two years, so don't get caught out.

Keeping digital copies of everything will become law once you've gone MTD.  However there is nothing stopping you from also keeping hard copies of it helps you, but would be a wasted exercise to make a habit of.

So it's worth getting used to the practice as soon as possible so it's not daunting and huge changes when the time comes.  I am sure there will be a couple of last minute people panicking.  So get rid of future anxiety and start planning now.

I now have zero paperwork, no more printing and filing. It's so much easier.

Surely you don't have to photograph diesel receipts if you pay by card/phone as its all there in your bank statements?

I personally will still keep all paper receipts/invoices too in a plastic folder for that tax year as I don't want to rely solely on digital means.

[dazmond]

Apparently it's unnecessary to scan every receipt/invoice! All I need to do is keep a record digitally of expenses(which i already do with cleaner planner)and keep the receipt/bank statements which i also already do in a folder.

[The Jester of Wibbly]

You still now need to to keep all expenses recorded digitaly.  Paperwork will be a thing of the past.   

HMRC can request digital copies any time they want.
That's how HMRC will now roll.  If you get investigated or your spot checked, you won't need to pay them a visit.  You'll be asked for what documents they want to check, they will open a portal for you to upload your digital files.  They then check tnem.

It's to simplify things for HMRC.

Also a little hack to make it simple to find expense recipes is to store them on your cloud and link them directly to your full expense spreadsheet.   Click on the expense and up pops your receipt.

I'm sure you'll be able to screenshot expense invoices if need be....or even photos of paper receipts or even download bank statements.

Remember this is ONLY if you get a spot check or investigation. HMRC are not interested otherwise.

Turnover
Expenses
Profit

And the evidence to back it up is all that's required.

I do need to store evidence of all my business expenses digitally for my own peace of mind instead of paper receipts/invoices in a plastic folder for that tax year. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet.....

Yes absolutely correct.  I am now just taking photos, for example, diesel receipt, them immediately uploading to my cloud stored in monthly folders per year. (I always find till receipts fade after a couple of years anyway) I then enter them into my spreadsheet linking the cell to the actual receipt.  I have gone paperless with my bank, so I just download them from my app, then upload them to my cloud.  Any electronic invoices from purchases go straight into my monthly folder too, again digitally linking it to my spreadsheet.    Every month I get a monthly invoice from Sumup and Go Cardless, and once again follow the same method.

Don't forget online banks now only store your statements for no more than two years, so don't get caught out.

Keeping digital copies of everything will become law once you've gone MTD.  However there is nothing stopping you from also keeping hard copies of it helps you, but would be a wasted exercise to make a habit of.

So it's worth getting used to the practice as soon as possible so it's not daunting and huge changes when the time comes.  I am sure there will be a couple of last minute people panicking.  So get rid of future anxiety and start planning now.

I now have zero paperwork, no more printing and filing. It's so much easier.

Surely you don't have to photograph diesel receipts if you pay by card/phone as its all there in your bank statements?

I personally will still keep all paper receipts/invoices too in a plastic folder for that tax year as I don't want to rely solely on digital means.

And you said before on a previous post you pay for diesel with cash?    I think you would need proper receipts too to show what you purchased and where from.  I don't think bank statements are a substitute for invoices.   

As long as your storing your receipts digitally on cloud you'll be safer than storing hard copies.    But do what you want anyhow, there is no harm in doing both.   I'm just trying to help to ease the pain of these changes after putting in a lot of research and talking to many professionals in the financial industry.