HMRC warns digital artisans

Digital artisans earning over £50,000 have been issued a warning by the UK tax authority, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). 

Digital artisans need to sign up to a new initiative.

HMRC's new Making Tax Digital (MTD) is not just a new wheeze but a fundamental change in how Brits now have to pay tax.

MTD for Income Tax is being billed as transformational, radically changing how businesses and sole traders report their earnings.

In short, it makes quarterly digital tax submissions a legal requirement. 

Now, instead of the traditional annual tax return, MTD requires a cycle of five submissions per year: four quarterly updates and one final declaration.

The mandate rolls out in phases based on qualifying income thresholds:

- April 2026: those earning over £50,000.

- April 2027: over £30,000.

- April 2028: over £20,000.

To comply, users must use HMRC-approved software to create a continuous "digital link" between their source records (such as bank feeds or platform exports) and their tax returns.

MTD is particularly critical for digital artisans, such as Amazon KDP authors, Etsy sellers, SaaS creators and freelance professionals.

Those who fall within the category need to be aware that MTD acts as a regulatory forcing function. 

It requires digital artisans to abandon their manual habits and adopt "self-assembling" bookkeeping tools that seamlessly connect their complex digital revenue streams directly to their ledgers without forcing them to learn double-entry accounting.

Get Bertie to help with your bookkeeping - sign up now - there's never a better time.