Guide

MTD for musicians: what Making Tax Digital actually means for you

For self-employed musicians, DJs and producers · UK

If you gig, DJ, produce or session for a living, you have probably had "Making Tax Digital" land in your inbox and bounce straight off. Here is the plain-English version, written for working musicians rather than accountants.

What MTD for Income Tax is

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD IT) is HMRC's move away from the once-a-year Self Assessment return. Instead of one big January panic, you keep your income and expenses as digital records and send HMRC a short update every quarter, using software that connects to them, then confirm the year at the end.

It is the same tax, worked out the same way. What changes is the rhythm: four lighter check-ins across the year instead of one late-night reckoning.

Does it apply to you?

MTD IT is being phased in by income, and it is based on your gross self-employment and property income (your turnover, before expenses), not your profit:

Two details that catch people out. First, HMRC bases this on your income for an earlier tax year, not the current one: for the April 2026 start it looks at your 2024 to 2025 figures, so it is worked out from a return you have already filed. Second, "combined" matters, because most musicians have more than one stream. DJ fees, production work, a teaching sideline, royalties, a flat you rent out: HMRC looks at the total of your self-employment and property income. Crucially, a salary from a day job taxed through PAYE does not count towards this figure, so a lot of part-time DJs are well under the threshold even if their total income is not.

The thresholds and timing do change, so treat the dates above as a signpost and check the current rules on GOV.UK, or ask your accountant, before you assume you are in or out.

What you actually have to do

Once you are mandated, three things become part of the year:

  1. Keep digital records of your business income and expenses. Not a shoebox of receipts and a spreadsheet you rebuild in January, but records kept in software as you go.
  2. Send a quarterly update to HMRC through compatible software, summarising income and expenses for each period.
  3. Finalise the year with a final declaration, where you confirm the figures and any adjustments.

None of this asks you to become an accountant. It asks you to keep tidy records and file more often than once.

Where the pain usually is for musicians

The quarterly rhythm is not the hard part. The hard part is that a musician's bank statement is a mess to categorise. Gig fees from three different promoters, a Thomann order, a Pioneer controller, PRS coming in, Splice going out, a train to a festival, cash from a wedding set. Generic bookkeeping tools do not know what any of that is, so you end up hand-sorting every line, every quarter.

That sorting, done four times a year instead of once, is the thing that makes MTD feel heavier than it needs to.

How Cratebooks fits

Cratebooks is built for this specific mess. You import a bank statement (CSV or PDF), and it recognises the merchants a working musician actually deals with, suggests the likely business income and expenses, and lets you confirm them quickly. It checks for the usual gaps, then exports clean, tax-year-organised records with the SA103 self-employment figures and the quarterly breakdown laid out.

It is a preparation tool. It gets your records clean and ready. You, your accountant, or compatible bridging software then file them. It is designed to be opened a few times a year around each update, not babysat every week, which fits how most of us actually work.

See your year sorted in minutes

Import a bank statement and watch Cratebooks sort the likely business income and expenses. Built for musicians and DJs.

Try it with your statement → No card needed to see your data sorted

Getting ahead of it

The kindest thing you can do for future-you is start keeping records digitally now, before you are mandated, so the first quarterly update is a formality rather than a scramble. Import a statement, see your year sorted in a couple of minutes, and decide for yourself whether it beats the January shoebox.

Common questions

I earn under the threshold. Do I still have to do this?

Not until your qualifying income (gross self-employment plus property income) reaches the threshold for that year. But keeping digital records early makes the switch painless if you cross it, and it makes your normal Self Assessment easier in the meantime.

I have a PAYE job too. Does that count?

No. MTD IT is about your self-employment and property income. Employment income taxed through PAYE is separate and does not count towards the threshold. If your self-employed and property income together clear the threshold, the self-employed side comes under MTD. Check your own mix with an accountant.

Do I need an accountant for MTD?

No, but you can use one. Cratebooks prepares the records either way; some musicians file themselves through compatible software, others hand the clean export to an accountant. Whether you need one depends on how complex your affairs are.

Is Cratebooks HMRC-recognised software?

Cratebooks prepares and exports your records. Direct filing to HMRC is a separate step, and where it is offered it is clearly signposted. Nothing here is tax advice: for your own position, check GOV.UK or speak to an accountant.

This guide is general information for working musicians, not tax advice. Making Tax Digital thresholds, dates and rules are set by HMRC and can change. Check the current position on GOV.UK or speak to a qualified accountant before making decisions about your own tax.