Blog · 26 July 2026 · 6 min read

Making Tax Digital for Chimney Sweeps: A Plain-English Guide

Making Tax Digital (MTD) is HMRC's long-running programme to move tax record-keeping and reporting into software — and it now applies to sole traders, which is most of the UK's chimney sweeps. This guide covers what's changing, when it affects you, and how to get ready without drowning in admin.

A note before we start: we build chimney sweep software, not accounting software, and this isn't tax advice. Deadlines and thresholds are as announced at the time of writing (July 2026) — always confirm the current rules on gov.uk or with your accountant.

What Making Tax Digital actually means

Under MTD you must:

1. Keep digital records of your business income and expenses — software or spreadsheets feeding software, not a shoebox of receipts totted up in January.
2. Send HMRC quarterly updates from MTD-compatible software — four summaries a year instead of one Self Assessment return.
3. File a final declaration after year end, replacing the traditional Self Assessment return.

If you're VAT-registered, you've been living with MTD for VAT for years already. What's new is MTD for Income Tax, which brings the same regime to sole traders.

The dates that matter

• April 2026 — MTD for Income Tax became mandatory for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000. If that's you, you should already be in the regime.
• April 2027 — the threshold drops to £30,000.
• April 2028 — the government has announced the threshold will drop again to £20,000.

Two details that catch people out:

• "Qualifying income" is gross turnover, not profit. A sweep turning over £32,000 with £12,000 of van, brush and insurance costs is over the 2027 threshold, even though the profit is £20,000.
• It's your combined self-employment and property income. If you sweep chimneys and let out a flat, the two are added together against the threshold.

Given where the thresholds are heading, most full-time sweeps will be in MTD within the next couple of years, if they aren't already.

What it means day to day for a sweep

The sweeps who find MTD painful are the ones reconstructing a year of jobs from a diary, bank statements and memory. The ones who find it easy are those whose income records create themselves as they work. Practically:

• Cash jobs still count. Cash-in-hand isn't exempt from anything — it just has to be recorded by hand, every time. The more of your work is paid digitally, the less manual record-keeping MTD demands of you.
• Card and online payments build the record for you. A job that's booked and paid online arrives with the date, the customer, the service and the amount already captured digitally — and lands in your bank with a payment reference. Come quarterly-update time, the income side is essentially a download rather than a chore.
• You'll need MTD-compatible software for the actual submissions — packages like FreeAgent, Xero and QuickBooks are the established options, and HMRC maintains a list of recognised software (including some free and low-cost tools). Your accountant can file from these on your behalf if you'd rather not touch it.
• Quarterly deadlines have teeth. Late submissions accrue points under HMRC's penalty system, and enough points convert into fines. Four smaller deadlines a year is genuinely easier than one big one — but only if the records exist as you go.

A realistic MTD checklist

1. Work out your qualifying income (gross, combined) and which start date applies to you.
2. Open a separate business bank account if you haven't — mixing personal and business transactions makes digital record-keeping miserable.
3. Move as much income as possible to digital payment — online booking with upfront payment does this as a side effect.
4. Pick MTD-compatible accounting software from HMRC's recognised list, or ask your accountant what they support.
5. Start keeping digital records now, even if your mandation date is 2027 or 2028 — a full year of clean records before you're forced makes the transition a non-event.

Where We Sweep fits (and where it doesn't)

We Sweep is not accounting software and doesn't file anything with HMRC. What it does is make the income half of MTD nearly automatic: every booking is recorded digitally with the customer, service, date and amount, and paid upfront through Stripe into your account — a clean digital trail your accounting software or accountant can reconcile in minutes. There's no monthly fee, just 2% per booking.

The sweeps who'll sail through MTD are the ones whose records build themselves. If you're still running on a paper diary and a phone, the years ahead are a good reason to change that — ideally before HMRC makes you.