Making Tax Digital,
in treatments a week.

What is it?

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is HMRC’s new way to do Self Assessment. You keep digital records of your income and expenses, send HMRC a short summary every three months using software that works with it, then send your tax return through that software at the end of the year. GOV.UK says the quarterly updates are summaries, not tax returns.

It’s about how you keep your records and how often HMRC sees them.

Who has to do it, and when?

GOV.UK says you need to use it if you’re a sole trader or landlord registered for Self Assessment and your income from self-employment and property is over the line for that tax year.

What does that mean in treatments?

These are the fewest treatments a week that take you over each line, over 48 working weeks. It’s our sum, using GOV.UK’s lines.

What counts towards the line?

GOV.UK calls it your qualifying income: your total income from self-employment and property, before expenses, also known as turnover.

GOV.UK says these count:

• your self-employed income, before costs
• other self-employed work
• rent from a property, or your share of it if you own it jointly

In our reading, in hair and beauty that means:

• what clients pay you, deposits included
• tips, and anything you sell, such as aftercare products
• chair or room rent other people pay you

GOV.UK says these don’t count:

• wages paid through PAYE
• dividends, including from your own company
• pensions
• your share of the profit as a partner in a partnership

Not sure about something you take? Ask your accountant.

What are the traps?

It’s what you take, not what you keep. Take £32,000, pay £10,000 for your chair and products, keep £22,000, and you’re still over the £30,000 line. Costs still come off when your tax is worked out. They just don’t come off the line.

Two small incomes add up. £22,000 from treatments and £9,000 rent from a flat is £31,000.

A part-time job doesn’t count, but your side work does. If you’re on PAYE three days a week and do nails on the other two, only the nails count.

Started part way through a year? GOV.UK says HMRC works out a sole trader’s income for a full year where it has the information. Its example doubles six months of income.

Limited company? This isn’t for your company. Rent or self-employed work in your own name still counts.

What do you have to record?

For each sale or cost, GOV.UK asks for three things: the amount, the date it was received or the cost was incurred, and a category. If your turnover from self-employment is under £90,000, a sole trader only needs to say whether each one is income or an expense.

So at 14 treatments a week over 48 weeks, that’s about 672 income records a year. You don’t type those into HMRC. You keep them in software, and the quarterly update sends the totals. GOV.UK says HMRC won’t see individual receipts.

GOV.UK also says retailers can choose to keep one record of their daily takings instead of each sale. It doesn’t say whether treatments count as retail sales, so ask your accountant before relying on that.

Can I use a spreadsheet?

Yes. GOV.UK names a spreadsheet as record-keeping software. You then need bridging software, which connects to your spreadsheet and sends your updates to HMRC. Records have to move between your software by a digital link. Importing and exporting CSV files counts as one. Copying and pasting doesn’t, and neither does typing the figures out again.

Do I have to pay for software?

Not always. GOV.UK says free products are available for those with simple tax affairs, though they may limit things like the number of transactions. Some business bank accounts include it: Monzo, for one, says its free business account has HMRC-recognised Making Tax Digital software built in. GOV.UK’s software finder lists what works with it, and HMRC doesn’t recommend any product.

What’s due when?

Each update covers your tax year so far, from 6 April. If you use calendar quarters from 1 April instead, they’re due on the same days.

Why isn’t your bank feed the whole story?

Plenty of tax apps connect to your business bank account, and that’s a good start. Three things to watch in hair and beauty:

• Cash never reaches the feed unless you pay it in, so you add it yourself.
• Card money usually lands in batches with the card fee already taken off. What counts is what the client paid, so the fee is one of your costs, not money you never had.
• Personal accounts. If clients pay into your personal account, a business feed won’t see it.

Does my booking app do this for me?

We make Covered Beauty, and it doesn’t. It’s a booking app, not HMRC-recognised Making Tax Digital software. It doesn’t make your digital records or send anything to HMRC, and nothing on this page is tax advice.

What it does give you. Every payment you record against a booking, card, cash or bank transfer, is in one place. On Data export and import, the Payments download gives you them all as a spreadsheet (a CSV file) with the date, the amount, how it was paid and any refunds, for you or your accountant. Card payments show what the client paid, before Stripe’s fee. Payments made with a gift voucher or loyalty points are marked as such.

What isn’t in it. The Payments download only covers payments against bookings. Gift voucher sales and sunbed package sales aren’t in it, even when they go through Covered Beauty. Reports shows what you sold of each. Anything you take outside Covered Beauty isn’t in it either, and nor are your expenses. So don’t send that file to your accountant as all your takings.

GOV.UK lists CSV importing as one way to link records, but we haven’t tested our file with any tax software, so check with yours.

Bookings, deposits, consultation forms and reminders are on every plan. Try it free for a week, no card needed.

Sources

Each page was read on 3 November 2026.

• Check if you’re eligible for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (GOV.UK)
• Work out your qualifying income for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (GOV.UK)
• Sole traders and landlords earning more than £30,000 urged to act now, HMRC, 5 October 2026 (GOV.UK)
• Self Assessment tax returns: deadlines (GOV.UK)
• Create digital records for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (GOV.UK)
• Find software that’s compatible with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (GOV.UK)
• Making Tax Digital, Monzo Business
• Send quarterly updates for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (GOV.UK)
• Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (GOV.UK)