MAKING TAX DIGITAL
Article by Gary Jacobs CEO Eazitax 020 8529 2600
www.eazitax.co.uk
FIRST QUARTERLY DEADLINE LANDS 7 AUGUST The upside nobody mentions
Here’s what it means for you
If you’re a self-employed private hire or taxi driver and you earned over £50,000 last tax year, mark 7 August 2026 in your diary. That’s when your first Making Tax Digital (MTD) quarterly update is due to HMRC. Over 864,000 sole traders and landlords nationally are in the same boat, and plenty of them will be drivers.
First thing to get straight: it’s £50,000 gross, not profit. That’s your total fares and platform/ operator earnings before fuel, insurance, PCO licence, vehicle finance, servicing - the lot.
Don’t assume you’re in the clear just because your actual take-home is well under £50k. Plenty of drivers gross well over that and clear a fraction of it once costs come out, but HMRC only cares about the top- line figure from your 2024/25 tax return.
Check that number before you decide this doesn’t apply to you.
What you actually have to do
This isn’t a tax return - HMRC has been clear about that. It’s a short digital summary of your income and expenses, sent through approved software, covering 6 April to 5 July 2026 (some drivers work to calendar quarters instead - 1 April to 30 June - so check which one applies to you). Done properly, it takes about ten minutes.
The catch is “done properly.” If you’ve been logging your fuel, tyres, servicing, insurance and licence renewals as you’ve gone along, this really is a quick job. If you’re planning to reconstruct three months of receipts the night before the deadline, it won’t be.
Some software includes a checking tool called HMRC Assist, which flags likely mistakes before you submit -handy, but you’re still responsible for what actually goes to HMRC.
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After each update, the software gives you an estimate of what you’ll owe. For a trade where earnings swing week to week - fuel prices, demand, commission changes - that’s actually useful. Instead of one nasty surprise every January, you get a running total and a chance to put money aside as you go.
No fine this time - but don’t get comfortable
Miss the 7 August deadline and nothing happens this year - HMRC isn’t issuing penalty points for late quarterly updates in year one. But that grace period ends after this year.
From year two, each missed quarterly update earns a penalty point, and once you hit four, that’s a £200 fine. Your annual Self-Assessment return is unaffected by any of this - it’s still due 31 January, and late returns and late payments are still fined as normal.
The quarterly updates sit alongside your tax return, not instead of it.
Where this is heading
This is only going one way. The £50,000 threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027, and £20,000 from April 2028. If you’re a full-time driver, there’s a decent chance you’ll be caught within the next two years even if you’re not now - so getting into the habit of digital record-keeping sooner rather than later will save you a headache down the line.
What to do before 7 August
Check your gross income for 2024/25. If it’s over £50,000, confirm you’re signed up to MTD, that your software’s on HMRC’s approved list, and that your fuel, insurance, and vehicle costs for the last three months are logged and ready to go.
If you haven’t signed up yet, you still can via
GOV.UK, OR - GO TALK TO YOUR ACCOUNTANT!! See you on the other side Gary
AUGUST 2026 PHTM
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