Making Tax Digital

Can I use a spreadsheet for Making Tax Digital?

Yes, with conditions. HMRC accepts a spreadsheet as a digital record. It does not accept a number read off that spreadsheet and typed anywhere else. Between those two sentences is most of what MTD asks of a landlord.

A spreadsheet is allowed; re-typing from it is not

HMRC accepts a spreadsheet as a digital record. What it does not accept is a figure read off the spreadsheet and typed into a submission. The total has to travel by digital link — a linked cell, an import, an API — which is what bridging software does and what a spreadsheet on its own cannot.

Near the time, not at the year end

A digital record is one made close to the transaction. A spreadsheet filled in each quarter from three months of bank statements is a reconstruction, and the rule exists to end reconstructions. The spreadsheet has to be a habit, not a project.

One typo, four quarters

Quarterly updates are cumulative, so an error in a manual spreadsheet in Q1 is carried into every later update until someone finds it. There is no January to catch it in.

Keep the spreadsheet, or replace it

LetBuddy imports bank statements and lets you match each transaction to a property and an HMRC category. The spreadsheet’s job, done from the source rather than by hand.

Record close to the event

Rent in, expense out, with the document attached, on the day or near it. The digital-record rule met by default rather than by discipline.

Let the total calculate itself

Quarter totals by category come from the records, which is a digital link in HMRC’s sense. No cell copied, no figure retyped.

Have it chase you

The quarter’s deadline sits in the same reminder system as your gas safety certificate: a month, a fortnight, a week and a day out, by email and in the app. A spreadsheet does not send email.

What this is not

It is not bridging software for your existing spreadsheet. LetBuddy holds the records itself; it does not read totals out of an Excel file and pass them to HMRC. If you want the spreadsheet to stay the system of record, bridging software is a different product.

Submission is not yet live. LetBuddy is built against HMRC’s official MTD for Income Tax API and tested end to end in their sandbox; the production credentials application is with HMRC, and until LetBuddy is on the GOV.UK list of compatible software the submission step is marked coming soon in the product. Everything before that step — digital records against HMRC’s categories, bank import, quarter totals — works today.

Common questions

Can I use Excel for Making Tax Digital as a landlord?

Yes, as the record. A spreadsheet is an acceptable digital record provided each transaction is entered near the time it happens. To submit, the totals must reach HMRC by digital link, so a spreadsheet needs bridging software that reads the cells directly — typing the total into a form does not qualify.

What is bridging software?

Software that links to a spreadsheet, reads the summary figures from it, and sends them to HMRC through the MTD API. It satisfies the digital-link rule without replacing the spreadsheet. It does not check whether the spreadsheet was kept properly.

Is a spreadsheet or software better for MTD?

It depends on what fails. A spreadsheet fails on discipline — it is only a digital record if you keep it up — and on links, since a manual total breaks the chain. Software fails if it cannot show you what it did. The honest test for either is whether, in July, you can produce Q1’s categorised figures without opening a bank statement.

Do I still need to keep receipts?

Yes. MTD requires the digital record of each transaction; HMRC can still ask for the evidence behind it. LetBuddy attaches the document to the expense so both are in one place.

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