What digital records do I need to keep for Making Tax Digital?

Three things for every transaction: the date, the amount, and the category. You do not have to photograph your receipts.

For every item of income you receive and every business expense you pay, you need a record in software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, showing three things: the amount, the date, and the category.

That is the whole requirement. There is no rule that you scan or photograph your receipts, and no rule that you record anything transaction by transaction beyond those three fields. If you are used to Self Assessment, the information is the same information you already gather. What changes is that it has to live in software as you go, rather than being added up from a carrier bag in January.

What each digital record must contain

HMRC defines a digital record as a record of your income or expense that is created and stored using software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Each one needs:

Field	What it means
Amount	The value of the income or the expense
Date	When the income was received, or when the expense was incurred
Category	The type of income or expense it is

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax uses the same categories of income and expenses as Self Assessment, so the category names will look familiar. Which set you use depends on the type of business you have, because sole trade and property income have different lists.

One category catches landlords out. HMRC's list of property expense categories treats residential property finance costs, such as mortgage interest, as their own category, separate from non-residential property finance costs and from your other property expenses. If you have them, keep them in that category rather than folding them into general expenses. There is more on this in Making Tax Digital for landlords.

You do not have to photograph your receipts

This is the single most common misunderstanding, so it is worth being blunt about it. Making Tax Digital does not require you to store an image of a receipt or an invoice anywhere.

What HMRC says is that you should carry on keeping records the way you normally do for Self Assessment. That means keeping the original records and supporting documents, or copies of them, that you used to prepare your return. For a sole trader that typically includes receipts for goods and stock, sales invoices, till rolls, bank slips, chequebook stubs and bank statements.

Those supporting documents can stay on paper in a box file. Only the record of the transaction itself has to be digital. If your software lets you attach a photo of a receipt, that is a convenience, not a legal requirement.

What counts as a digital record, and what does not

Because a digital record has to be created and stored in software that works with Making Tax Digital, the test is not "is it on a computer" but "is the data itself held in compatible software".

These count:

Transactions entered directly into Making Tax Digital software
Transactions imported into that software from a bank feed or a file
A spreadsheet of transactions, as long as it is connected to software that can send the data to HMRC

These do not count on their own:

A photograph or scan of a paper cash book, ledger or receipt. The image is a picture of a record, not a record. The amount, date and category are not held as data that software can read or send
A bank statement by itself. HMRC treats it as a supporting document, and it does not carry your categories
A handwritten book that you type up once a year at the end of the year

The timing point matters. HMRC requires you to create the digital records for a quarterly period before either the deadline for that quarterly update, or before you send it, whichever comes first. So a book you write up in January is too late, even if everything in it is correct.

If today you keep a paper ledger, you do not have to throw it away. You do have to make sure the same transactions end up in software during the year.

Spreadsheets are still allowed

You can keep using spreadsheets. HMRC says so directly. What you also need is software that links to your spreadsheet, sometimes called bridging software, because that is what sends your quarterly updates and your tax return.

We cover the practical detail in Can I still use spreadsheets for Making Tax Digital?.

Digital links between software

If you use more than one product, for example a spreadsheet for your records and separate software to file, the connection between them has to be a digital link. In plain terms, the data must move without anyone retyping it or copying and pasting it by hand.

HMRC accepts these as digital links:

Linked cells in spreadsheets, where a formula pulls a figure from one sheet to another
Emailing a spreadsheet so the figures can be imported
Moving a file on a portable device, such as a memory stick, and importing the data
Importing or exporting XML or CSV files
Automated data transfer
Transfer through an application programming interface, or API

Once a digital record has been sent to HMRC in a quarterly update, you must not manually move it, either within your record keeping software or to other software. HMRC gives two examples of what that rules out: writing the information out again in another cell or in other software, and using cut and paste or copy and paste to move records.

Two things do not need a digital link. The first is any income that is not self-employment or property income, such as dividends or savings. The second is software that you only use to submit your tax return, because that software gets the data directly from HMRC rather than from your record keeping software. So if you keep records and send quarterly updates in one product, as you would with MTD Gateway, and submit your tax return in another, there is no link to build between the two.

Simpler categories if your turnover is below the VAT threshold

If your annual turnover from either self-employment or UK property is below the VAT registration threshold, currently £90,000, you can categorise your digital records simply as income or expense, instead of using the more detailed category lists. You then send a total income figure and a total expenses figure for each source of income in your quarterly update.

There is a carve out for residential property finance costs. If you receive property income and you incur those costs, such as mortgage interest, you must still create a separate digital record for them and send them separately from your other expenses.

If you have more than one source of self-employment or UK property income, you can only use the simpler approach for both if each source is below the threshold on its own. And if a source later reaches £90,000, you have to go back and categorise its records in full, from the start of the current tax year onwards, before you can send another quarterly update. If you think you might get close, categorise in full from the start.

Retailers can record daily gross takings

If you make retail sales, you can choose, for each tax year, to create a single digital record of your daily gross takings instead of a record for every individual sale. That daily figure has to include all payments as they are received from your own cash paying retail customers, plus the full value of all credit and other non cash retail sales.

How long to keep your records

You need to keep your digital records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline for that tax year. This is the same period that already applies to Self Assessment records for a business.

For example, records for the 2022 to 2023 tax year, filed online by 31 January 2024, need to be kept until at least the end of January 2029.

When this applies to you

The digital record keeping rules only bite once Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to you. That depends on your qualifying income.

Qualifying income on your return for	More than	You must start from
2024 to 2025	£50,000	6 April 2026
2025 to 2026	£30,000	6 April 2027
2026 to 2027	£20,000	6 April 2028

Qualifying income is your total turnover from self-employment and property income before you take off any expenses. If you are not sure whether it includes a particular source, read what counts as qualifying income, or check whether you are in scope at all in do I need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax?.

The first group, with qualifying income over £50,000, is already in the system from 6 April 2026. If that is you, your records need to be digital now, not from your first filing date. The quarterly deadlines are set out in Making Tax Digital quarterly update deadlines.

Last reviewed 25 July 2026. This is general information about how Making Tax Digital works, not tax advice. We are not accountants. If your situation is complicated, speak to one, or check the guidance on GOV.UK.