What digital records must sole traders and landlords keep from April 2027?

If your qualifying income was over £30,000 in 2025-26, and not over £50,000 in 2024-25, from 6 April 2027 you digitally record each sale, rent and cost of your existing businesses, with a few small exceptions.

If you were over £50,000 in 2024-25, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) already applies to you from 6 April 2026, so you should be keeping these records now. This page follows GOV.UK's "Create digital records" guidance and HMRC's record-keeping direction, both checked on 17 October 2026. For a line-by-line guide to what a trade records, see what records you need to keep for MTD.

What a digital record is

GOV.UK defines it as a record of your income or expense "created and stored using software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax". Each one needs three things:

• the amount
• the date the income was received or the expense was incurred
• the category, using the same income and expense categories as Self Assessment

If your accounts run to 31 March, not 5 April, you start from 1 April 2027 instead and should choose calendar update periods before your first update.

A sole trade or property business you start once you are in MTD can wait until after your first tax return through compatible software that includes it. In GOV.UK's example, a business started in May 2027 first goes on the 2027-28 return, so its records start from 6 April 2029.

GOV.UK says you need no digital records of trading income under its £1,000 allowance that you did not declare on your previous tax return, or property income under £1,000 that you did not need to declare. If you claimed the allowance, you keep them. Leaving rent off is not enough if you could not use the property allowance, say because a company you or someone connected to you owns or controls paid it, or you claim the mortgage interest tax reducer.

Rent a Room income from a furnished room in your home (up to £7,500) needs digital records only if your last return also had other UK property income, or your UK property income on it was over the scheme threshold. A trader with just a lodger under the limit records none.

Who keeps what

The simpler options

Under £90,000. If a sole trade or your UK property turnover is below £90,000, you can record each item as just income or expense. Landlords with residential mortgage interest or other finance costs must still record those separately. With more than one sole trade, or a sole trade and UK lets, each must be below £90,000 to use this. The £90,000 limit does not apply to foreign property income. If turnover reaches £90,000, you must categorise that business's records in full from the start of the tax year before you can send the next update.

Joint lets. For your share of a jointly let property, you can make one record per income category each quarter (one £3,000 rent entry, not three of £1,000) and one record per expense category for the year. You can also leave those expenses out of quarterly updates and add them before your tax return.

Shops. A retailer can make one record of each day's gross takings, not one per sale.

Private and capital items. You can record only the business share of a mixed bill, or the full bill and adjust later. For a mortgage payment you record either the interest or the full amount, adjusting before your tax return.

Bank feeds, spreadsheets and receipts

A bank feed helps, but GOV.UK says you may need to add the category yourself, and "some transactions may not appear in full in your bank feed". If you only get a net payout, ask for the full amount and record income and expenses separately.

A spreadsheet can hold your records if it is digitally linked to bridging software that sends the updates. Linked cells, CSV imports and API transfers count. Once a record has been sent in an update, you must not retype it or copy and paste it elsewhere. More is on our spreadsheet page.

You do not send receipts to HMRC (why not). You keep the original records or supporting documents, "or copies of them", such as bank statements and invoices.

What this means for you

In the April 2027 group, your first quarter matters most: records of income and costs from 6 April to 5 July 2027 (or 1 April to 30 June on calendar periods) must be in your software before you send your first update, and by 7 August 2027 at the latest. GOV.UK says to create records as close to the transaction date as you can.

Our page on how long to keep business records has the retention dates. Joint owners can read how joint landlords do MTD in 2027.

Steps to get your records ready for April 2027

1. Check your 2025-26 qualifying income against £30,000, and your 2024-25 income against £50,000, with the free MTD check.
2. List each business: every sole trade, your UK lets as one, and your foreign lets as one.
3. Choose MTD software, or a spreadsheet with bridging software, and link your bank feed if it has one.
4. Decide whether you can use income-and-expense only, and set up a separate line for mortgage interest if you let homes.
5. From 6 April 2027, enter each item for your existing businesses with its amount, date and category (a shop can enter daily gross takings instead), and fill gaps the bank feed misses. New businesses, small side incomes and room lets may wait or need none, as above.
6. Keep your receipts, invoices and statements, on paper or as copies, for at least 5 years after the filing deadline.

There are more guides in the trades section and the landlord section.