Making Tax Digital Spreadsheet 2026/27 Sole Trader | MTD Survival Kit | Excel Google Sheets

BEHIND ON MAKING TAX DIGITAL? SO IS ABOUT HALF THE COUNTRY.

HMRC said 864,000 sole traders and landlords faced the new rules this tax year — and by
12 August only 436,000 had sent a first quarterly update. If your records are still in a
shoebox, this kit takes you from shoebox to a submitted quarterly update in one sitting,
before the 7 November deadline. And because updates are cumulative, that ONE submission
also catches up the quarter you missed — with no penalty points for late updates in the
2026-27 tax year.

WHAT YOU GET (instant download)

• MTD-ready bookkeeping spreadsheet (Excel + Google Sheets compatible) — the exact income
and expense categories from HMRC's quarterly update rules, dropdown-picked so you can't
mistype them
• Quarterly Summary that adds itself up — cumulative totals for every deadline (7 Aug,
7 Nov, 7 Feb, 7 May), Standard AND Calendar update periods supported
• Built-in error catchers — check cells flag a missed category, a wrong-year date, or an
amount left without a date
• Filled worked example — check the formulas with a calculator; every formula was
machine-verified against hand-computed values before this shipped
• 11-page plain-English walkthrough — "the screens you'll see" from GOV.UK sign-in to
the confirmation receipt, plus the penalty rules in plain English
• 5 free HMRC-recognised bridging tools, named: the ones that take a spreadsheet and send it, with what each one covers. Checked on HMRC's official software finder, date stamped inside the guide, and we show you how to re-check it yourself in two minutes. We take no commission from any of them and we are not one of them. Free all-in-one apps are named too, with the trade-off spelled out: you keep your records inside their app, and a free year is an offer, not a promise.
• Plain-English Start Here page — 3 steps, no tech skills needed, use it immediately
• Phone/computer calendar file — every 2026/27 deadline with reminders built in, works
with iPhone, Google and Outlook calendars
• All four deadlines (7 Aug · 7 Nov · 7 Feb · 7 May) built into the Quarterly Summary —
no separate app needed

THE HONEST BIT

This kit does not submit anything to HMRC — only software on HMRC's recognised list can
do that. This kit gets your records submit-ready and walks you to a free recognised tool
that does the sending. Some tools will file for you for nothing this tax year, and if that suits you, use one; the walkthrough tells you how to check. This kit is for the other case: you want the figures in a sheet you own, typed by you, on your own computer, with no bank account connected and no free-for-now offer to depend on next April. The records stay yours either way. That is what you are buying.

FREE UPDATES FOR 2026/27: if HMRC changes the quarterly categories, deadlines or the
free-tools list this tax year, the corrected file is emailed to you at no charge.

IS THIS YOU?

• Sole trader mandated into MTD from April 2026 (over £50,000 gross on your 2024-25 return)
• Records in a shoebox, banking app, or your head
• Missed the 7 August update and not sure how bad that is (answer: fixable, penalty-free, this weekend; the November update catches it up in one go)
• Want someone to just say which free tool to use and what to click

NOT for limited companies or partnerships — MTD for Income Tax covers sole traders and
landlords. Renting AND trading? Get the bundle — HMRC treats them as two businesses and
you'll need both spreadsheets.

FILE DELIVERY: ZIP containing 1 spreadsheet (.xlsx) + 1 walkthrough PDF. Works in Excel,
Google Sheets, LibreOffice. A4 print-friendly guide.

Found an error? hello [!at] getaxionlabs.com — fixed same day, corrected file sent to you.
General information about UK tax rules, not tax advice. Not affiliated with HMRC.