Self-employed? Keep your records on your own Mac.
Making Tax Digital is pushing sole traders into software, and most of it is a monthly subscription to a website. Canny will be an app you buy, with your records in your own iCloud.
Receipts in your pocket, books on your desk.
Photograph a receipt on your iPhone when you get it. It's read on the phone, saved to your iCloud and waiting on your Mac, matched to the payment.
- Bank statements from any UK bank
- Mark what's business and what's personal on a shared account
- Mileage and working from home at HMRC's flat rates
Do you have to use software? It depends on your income.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax replaces the yearly Self Assessment return with digital records, a short update every quarter and a final declaration. It applies to sole traders and landlords according to their income from self-employment and property, before expenses:
- From 6 April 2026Over £50,000
- From 6 April 2027Over £30,000
- From 6 April 2028Over £20,000
- Below £20,000No change announced: one Self Assessment return a year, due 31 January.
Source: GOV.UK, check when to start using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
What Canny will do for sole traders
| Stage | What you get | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Records | Bank import, receipts, invoices, categories that map to the Self Assessment boxes, and a running estimate of tax and National Insurance to set aside | Planned |
| VAT | Making Tax Digital VAT returns, if you're registered | Planned |
| Self Assessment | The yearly return, for people under the Making Tax Digital threshold and for company directors | Planned |
| Making Tax Digital for Income Tax | Quarterly updates and the final declaration | Later. It depends on HMRC approving the software |
Sole trader and a company too?
Plenty of people have both: a limited company for contracting and some self-employed income on the side, or a company and a Self Assessment return as its director. Canny keeps each set of books separate in one app. The limited company version comes first.