UK tax reports

Before you start

Open Reports and set Filings for to the United Kingdom (a UK workspace starts there). Two helpers are listed: VAT Return and Income tax. Both work from your issued invoices and recorded payments.

• •Nothing is sent to HMRC. Enter the figures in your Making Tax Digital software or bridging tool, or give them to your accountant.
• •Sales only. Purchases and expenses are not tracked, so input VAT and allowable expenses come from your own records.
• •Pounds only. Invoices in other currencies are listed separately with a note, because HMRC takes sterling. Convert those amounts yourself.
• •Voided invoices are left out. Corrective invoices count in the period they were issued, and credits are subtracted.

Choose your VAT quarter and basis

1. 1Open VAT Return. It opens on the VAT quarter you are in today.
2. 2Set VAT quarters ending to match your VAT periods: Mar / Jun / Sep / Dec, Apr / Jul / Oct / Jan or May / Aug / Nov / Feb. You will find your stagger in your HMRC VAT account.
3. 3Pick the Year and Quarter. The year is the one the quarter starts in. For example, on Apr / Jul / Oct / Jan quarters, Q4 2026 runs from 1 November 2026 to 31 January 2027. The exact dates appear in the title of the boxes card.
4. 4Set Basis: Invoice date for standard VAT accounting, or Payment date if you use the Cash Accounting Scheme.

On the invoice-date basis, every invoice counts in the quarter of its issue date. On the payment-date basis, only payments recorded in the quarter count. Each payment is split across its invoice's VAT rates in proportion, so a part-payment accounts for part of the VAT.

Copy the VAT Return boxes

VAT Return boxes lists all nine boxes. Invoice 14 can fill in the sales side:

• •Box 1: the VAT you charged on your invoices.
• •Box 6: all your sales excluding VAT. This includes zero-rated sales, intra-EU reverse charge, exports and services to overseas customers that are outside the scope of UK VAT.
• •Boxes 3 and 5 are worked out as if boxes 2 and 4 were zero. Once you enter your input VAT in box 4, box 5 becomes box 3 minus box 4.
• •Boxes 2, 4, 7, 8 and 9 read "not from sales data — fill in from your purchase records".
• •Boxes 6 to 9 are whole pounds on the return, so the pence are dropped.

Under the boxes, What went into box 6 splits box 6 by type of sale, and Sales by rate shows the net amount and VAT per rate.

Zero-rated and exempt sales are not told apart, and whether services to overseas customers belong in box 6 depends on what you sell. Confirm both with your accountant before you submit.

Get your turnover for Self Assessment and MTD updates

Income tax shows your turnover for a UK tax year (6 April to 5 April), split into the four quarterly-update periods used by Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

1. 1Open Income tax and pick the Tax year (shown as 2026/27, for example).
2. 2Under Quarters, keep 6 Apr – 5 Jul … for the standard update periods, or choose Calendar (1 Apr – 30 Jun …) if you have elected calendar quarters. With calendar quarters, the year runs from 1 April to 31 March.
3. 3Optionally pick a Quarter. The page still shows the whole year and highlights that quarter.

Both accounting bases are shown side by side, so use the column that matches yours:

• •Invoiced (ex VAT): what you invoiced in the period, for traditional accounting.
• •Received (ex VAT): what you were paid in the period, excluding the VAT in those payments, for the cash basis (the default for most sole traders).
• •Cash in: the money that actually arrived, including VAT. Use it to check against your bank.

This is turnover only. Expenses are not tracked, so your profit and the expense figures of your updates come from your own records.