How does Making Tax Digital for Income Tax affect me if I have multiple Sole trader businesses/properties?

If you have multiple sources of income that are sole trader businesses or properties that you landlord (PAYE income is not included), your gross income is the combined total from all of these business activities before any expenses are taken off.

For example, if the combined gross income of all your sources of income reaches or exceeds £50,000 for the last complete tax year, then you will need to file your taxes digitally in 2026 using HMRC approved software!

You will also need to hold separate business accounts for each source of income that you own, and report the finances of each source of income separately to HMRC.

For example, if you have a carpentry sole trader business, you sell collectibles on Amazon and you own properties that you are landlord of, you will need one bank account for the carpentry, a second bank account for the Amazon business and a third bank account for the landlord funds.

HMRC have also created this tool which will help you figure out when Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will affect your businesses.