Do I need to upload receipts for Making Tax Digital?

No. Under Making Tax Digital, which started on 6 April 2026, HMRC gets quarterly totals, not receipts. You keep each receipt for at least 5 years and show it only if HMRC asks.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) is often described as "sending everything to HMRC". It does not work like that. What changes is that each sale and cost is entered in software. The paper trail behind those entries stays in your hands. The rules below follow GOV.UK as checked on 16 October 2026.

What actually goes to HMRC

Every 3 months your software adds up your digital records and sends a quarterly update. GOV.UK calls these updates "summaries, not tax returns". They hold totals for your self-employment and property income and expenses. GOV.UK says HMRC will not receive details of individual receipts or invoices in your quarterly updates.

Each digital record in your software needs only three things:

• the amount
• the date the money came in or the cost was incurred
• a category, using the same categories as the Self Assessment tax return

If you are a sole trader with turnover under £90,000, the category can simply be income or expense.

What you keep, and what you send

Why you still keep the receipts

GOV.UK is plain about this: you must continue keeping records as you normally do for Self Assessment, including the original records or supporting documents, or copies of them, that you used to prepare your tax return. Its examples of proof include receipts for goods and stock, bank statements, sales invoices and till rolls.

You do not send these in, but GOV.UK says you keep them so you can work out your profit or loss and show them to HMRC if asked. HMRC may check your records to make sure you are paying the right amount of tax.

For CIS subcontractors, HMRC adds your CIS deductions to your MTD tax return, and you must check them before you submit. Your monthly statements are how you check.

If a receipt goes missing

Records get lost: a van gets broken into, a folder ends up in a skip. GOV.UK says that if you cannot replace your records, you must do your best to provide figures. When you file your tax return, tell HMRC if you are using estimated figures, which are your best guess, or provisional figures, which are temporary estimates while you wait for the real ones. Provisional figures must be replaced with actual figures once you have them.

The entry in your software still needs an amount, date and category, so make it from whatever evidence you have and correct it later if a copy turns up. During the tax year, a corrected record goes to HMRC with your next quarterly update.

What this means for you

For a sparky or a landlord, the job each week is to make an entry in the software and keep the receipt somewhere safe. Some software lets you photograph receipts to create the entry, which saves typing, but that is a feature of the product, not an HMRC requirement.

Keep everything for at least 5 years after the 31 January deadline for the tax year. Your 2026-27 tax return is due by 31 January 2028, so its receipts are kept until at least the end of January 2033. The law lets you keep records in any form, so a clear photo or scan, backed up, will do.

Steps to handle receipts under MTD

1. When you pay for something for the business, ask for a receipt or invoice.
2. Enter it in your software with the amount, date and category, or photograph it if your software creates entries from photos.
3. Keep the receipt or a clear copy, filed by tax year.
4. Keep bank statements and CIS statements alongside them.
5. Before each quarterly update, check that every cost in the bank has a matching entry and receipt.
6. Keep each year's records until at least 5 years after its 31 January deadline.

The free MTD check shows when MTD starts for you, and our guide on what records to keep goes into categories. The trades section and landlord section describe our service.