Making Tax Digital for Barristers and Solicitors
Written and reviewed by the Legal Accountants editorial team. Last reviewed 28 July 2026.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax changes how self-employed barristers and sole-practitioner solicitors keep records and report to HMRC: digital records and quarterly updates instead of one annual return. For most it is not here yet, but it is close, and when it lands depends on income.
This is the timetable, who is caught, and what to do before it reaches you.
When It Reaches You
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax starts on 6 April 2026 for people with qualifying income above £50,000, extends to those above £30,000 from April 2027, and to those above £20,000 from April 2028. Qualifying income is your gross self-employment and property income before expenses, added together.
For a self-employed barrister or a sole-practitioner solicitor with a busy practice, £50,000 of gross fees is easily passed, so many will be in from the first phase. Partnerships and LLPs are not in this first stage, general partnerships are due to join later on a date not yet set, so a firm's members are caught on their personal income now while the firm itself waits.
What Actually Changes
Once you are in, three things change: you keep your records digitally, you send HMRC a summary update every quarter through compatible software, and you finalise the year with a digital declaration instead of a single return. It is more touch-points, but it is not more tax.
For a practice already keeping clean digital records, it is a small change. For one still working from a spreadsheet or a shoebox, the year before the start date is the time to fix that, alongside the tax-year basis that already applies.
Getting Ready
We set clients up on compatible software, connect it to the accounts where fees land, and run the quarterly updates as part of the ongoing service, so the deadlines are ours to watch. For barristers on the cash basis the quarterly rhythm actually suits how fees arrive.
Getting on top of this early, rather than in the quarter it begins, is the difference between a non-event and a scramble. To get set up, tell us about your practice.