Making Tax Digital lands for sole-trader sparks and plumbers in April 2026 — five things to do before your first quarterly filing

If you're a sole-trader sparks or plumber turning over more than £50,000, your tax year has just changed shape. From 6 April 2026, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD ITSA) is finally live for the highest-earning self-employed and landlords — and instead of one Self Assessment a year, you'll be sending HMRC a quarterly digital update plus a final declaration. On paper, that's a lot of admin. In practice, with the right software and a clear calendar, it's manageable. Here are five things every Midlands trade contractor should be doing in the weeks before the first quarterly filing lands.

1. Who's actually in scope this year (and who waits)

HMRC's staged rollout means not every self-employed contractor is in scope from day one. The 2026 cohort is anyone trading as a sole trader (or earning landlord income) whose qualifying income exceeded £50,000 in the 2024–25 tax year, as reported on your 2024–25 Self Assessment return. Two more groups follow behind.

Crucially, "qualifying income" is gross self-employed turnover plus gross rental income — not your taxable profit. A plumber turning over £58,000 with £12,000 of overheads is in scope from April 2026, even though their taxable profit sits well below the £50,000 threshold. MoneySavingExpert's MTD explainer is a clear reference if you want to double-check whether you're caught. Partnerships and limited companies can relax for now: general partnerships join MTD from April 2027 at the earliest, and Corporation Tax MTD has been deferred indefinitely.

2. Four quarterly deadlines on a Midlands trade calendar

For the 2026–27 tax year, the standard MTD ITSA quarterly periods and submission dates are fixed and unforgiving — but the rhythm becomes second nature after a couple of cycles.

Four extra "office afternoons" in your 2026–27 calendar. The contractors who manage MTD without grief book the first weekend after each quarter as a fixed admin slot. The alternative is doing your books in the van at 9pm after a twelve-hour shift — that's how missed deadlines happen.

3. Free vs paid MTD-compatible software shortlist

HMRC won't let you upload to MTD from a spreadsheet directly. You'll need either full accounting software or "bridging software" that pulls data from your spreadsheet into the right API call. The shortlist that comes up most often for sole-trader trades:

Free (or near enough)

Paid (£10–£35 per month)

4. The soft-landing penalty position — and what HMRC will still fine for

HMRC has confirmed a "soft landing" for the first year of MTD ITSA, meaning genuine errors in digital record-keeping (missed transactions, mis-categorised expenses) won't attract penalties through the 2026–27 tax year. Don't read that as "you can ignore the rules for a year." The soft landing only covers digital record-keeping mistakes — not late filing, late payment, or refusal to engage at all.

“Sign up to a piece of software now, in April or early May, and treat Q1 as the practice run. By Q3 you'll be filing in twenty minutes — which is roughly half a coffee break.”

5. How working through Kirk Group on PAYE removes MTD overhead entirely

Here's the option a lot of sole-trader sparks and plumbers haven't considered: if you contract through Kirk Group on PAYE, your earnings on those assignments are taxed at source. They don't form part of your self-employed income, and they don't count towards the MTD ITSA threshold. Tax, National Insurance, and pension contributions are deducted from each weekly payslip. We handle the paperwork; HMRC sees a straightforward employee.

For trades who prefer the simplicity of payslips over invoices, that means no quarterly filings, no software subscriptions, and no soft-landing-period stress. You can still keep a separate sole-trader register for any direct work you do for your own customers, and as long as that side stays under the £20,000 turnover threshold it remains outside MTD entirely — while Kirk Group covers the bulk of your hours on PAYE on Midlands commercial, residential, and infrastructure sites.