Free MTD spreadsheet template for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Bookkeeping in MTD quarters with quarterly summaries formatted for bridging software.
Yes, you can still use a spreadsheet under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, as long as quarterly updates reach HMRC through bridging software. This free template keeps digital records in MTD quarters (6 April to 5 July, then to 5 October, 5 January and 5 April) and produces an import-ready summary for each quarterly deadline of 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May.
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A free Making Tax Digital spreadsheet for UK sole traders. It is a full bookkeeping workbook organised the way MTD for Income Tax actually works: transactions carry SA103 category dropdowns and are assigned to their MTD quarter automatically, and four quarterly summary tabs total every standard HMRC category with a single clean header row so bridging software can import them. Works in Excel and Google Sheets.
One Excel workbook: income and expenses tabs with SA103 category dropdowns and automatic quarter tagging, plus four bridging-ready quarterly summary tabs covering the 2026/27 MTD quarters. Enter your details and the file downloads immediately.
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Download Excel workbookAssumes tax year 2026/27 and MTD ITSA thresholds of £50,000 from April 2026 and £30,000 from April 2027. Rates last checked: 15 July 2026.
MTD for Income Tax applies from April 2026 if your qualifying income from self employment and property is over £50,000, and from April 2027 over £30,000. If you are under both thresholds you can keep normal records for now, but the quarterly habit is worth building early: switching your bookkeeping format in the same month your first update is due is how deadlines get missed. If you just want simple annual books first, start with the sole trader bookkeeping spreadsheet and move to this one when MTD reaches you.
Yes. HMRC allows spreadsheets as digital records under MTD for Income Tax, provided the quarterly updates are submitted through compatible bridging software with a digital link, not retyped. This template keeps the records and produces bridging-ready quarterly summaries.
The standard quarters follow the tax year: 6 April to 5 July, 6 July to 5 October, 6 October to 5 January and 6 January to 5 April. Updates are due one month and a bit after each quarter ends: 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May.
Bridging software is a tool that takes totals from your spreadsheet and submits them to HMRC through the MTD API, keeping the digital link intact. It means you can keep bookkeeping in Excel or Google Sheets instead of moving to a subscription accounting package. The free MTD Bridge Tool on this site does the mapping and summary step.
From April 2026 if your combined self employment and property income is over £50,000, and from April 2027 if it is over £30,000. Below that, the government has said the threshold will fall to £20,000 in a later phase, so most sole traders will meet MTD eventually.
Totals of your business income and expenses by category for the quarter, not individual transactions and not a tax calculation. That is why each summary tab in this template is just a category column and an amount column: it is exactly the shape HMRC expects.
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Digital Adaption helps UK businesses fix the data behind the numbers: bookkeeping workflows, reporting you can trust and systems that talk to each other. Get in touch. Need a version of this tool built for your own company, with your rates, categories and workflows baked in? We build custom calculators, workbooks and internal tools. Contact us for a tailored quote.