Making Tax Digital: information for Uber, Bolt, FreeNow and other private hire drivers
Making Tax Digital is based on your gross turnover before expenses, not your take-home pay or your profit. This page explains what that means if you drive for a platform.
Does MTD apply to me as a private hire driver?
The rule that decides this is your gross turnover, not your profit and not your take-home pay. Gross turnover is the figure you declare as your self-employment turnover on your tax return, before any expenses are deducted. Exactly what that figure includes depends on your platform and contract, which we cover on our income page.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) became a legal requirement from 6 April 2026 for anyone whose gross turnover is over £50,000. The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028.
MTD applies to you in exactly the same way as it applies to any other self-employed person. There is no separate private hire version of the rules. What catches drivers out is working out gross turnover correctly, because for most drivers it is a higher figure than what lands in their bank account.
Your 2026/27 MTD status was decided by your 2024/25 tax return. HMRC works out whether you need to follow MTD this year by looking at the qualifying income you declared two tax years before. If you have already filed your 2024/25 return and your gross turnover from driving was over £50,000, you are in MTD now, whether or not you have received a letter from HMRC about it.
The technical term: qualifying income
HMRC calls this figure your "qualifying income". It is the same gross turnover rule explained above, just under its official name. You will see this term in HMRC's own guidance and in your MTD software.
This is also the same gross figure that matters for your Self Assessment return and the £90,000 VAT threshold. If you have already worked out your gross turnover for those purposes, you have the figure you need for MTD too.
If you drive for more than one platform, add the gross turnover from all of them together. HMRC does not assess MTD status platform by platform. A driver earning £28,000 from Uber and £24,000 from Bolt has £52,000 of qualifying income, over the threshold, even though neither platform on its own would trigger it.
Not sure what counts as your gross turnover on your platform? See our page on what counts as your income as a private hire driver.
Other income counts too
Qualifying income is not limited to driving. It includes gross turnover from any self-employment and gross income from UK property. If you rent out a room or a property alongside driving, add that gross figure to your driving turnover to get your total.
A driver earning £46,000 from driving and £5,000 from renting out a parking space has £51,000 of qualifying income, over the £50,000 threshold, even though neither figure alone would be.
Employment income through PAYE, dividends, savings interest, and pension income do not count towards the qualifying income test, even if you also drive.
What actually changes under MTD
Three things change once you are in MTD. None of them change how much tax you pay. They change how and when you report your income.
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1Digital record keeping
You must keep your income and expense records in MTD-compatible software. A spreadsheet on its own is not enough unless it is linked to bridging software that submits the data to HMRC in the correct format. A shoebox of receipts no longer meets the requirement.
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2Four quarterly updates a year
Instead of one annual figure, you send HMRC a running total of your income and expenses every three months. Each update is a summary, not a tax calculation, and you can correct earlier figures in a later update.
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3A final declaration replaces your Self Assessment return
After your fourth quarterly update, you submit a final declaration. This is where you claim allowances, make adjustments, and confirm your final tax position for the year. It replaces the old SA100 return for income covered by MTD.
Quarterly deadlines for 2026/27
By default, your quarters follow the tax year. You can elect in your software to use calendar quarters instead, ending on the last day of each month, but the submission deadline stays the same either way. The table below shows the default tax-year quarters.
| Quarter | Period covered | Submission due |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 6 April to 5 July 2026 | 7 August 2026 |
| Q2 | 6 July to 5 October 2026 | 7 November 2026 |
| Q3 | 6 October 2026 to 5 January 2027 | 7 February 2027 |
| Q4 | 6 January to 5 April 2027 | 7 May 2027 |
| Final declaration for 2026/27 | 31 January 2028 | |
The final declaration deadline is the same date as the old Self Assessment deadline. Payment dates do not change either: balancing payment and first payment on account on 31 January, second payment on account on 31 July.
Penalties: the soft landing only covers one thing
HMRC has confirmed a soft landing for 2026/27. No penalty points are issued for a late quarterly update during this first year.
This concession is narrow. It does not cover the final declaration, and it does not cover late payment of tax. A late final declaration or a late payment in 2026/27 carries the normal penalties from day one.
From 2027/28, every late quarterly update or final declaration earns one penalty point. Four points trigger a £200 fine, with a further £200 charged for each subsequent late submission.
Multi-platform drivers: one set of records, not three
You do not file separate quarterly updates for Uber, Bolt, and FreeNow. All your driving income sits within a single self-employment trade, so it is reported together in each quarterly update.
Keep your weekly platform statements from each app so you can reconcile your software records back to source figures if HMRC ever queries a quarter. Platform-generated annual summaries are not reliable enough to rely on alone, particularly Uber's, which runs to the calendar year rather than the UK tax year.
Common questions
No. HMRC writes to drivers it believes are affected based on their last tax return, but the legal responsibility to check and sign up sits with you. If your gross turnover from driving on your 2024/25 return was over £50,000, you need to be in MTD now, whether or not a letter has arrived.
Yes, if your gross turnover is over £50,000. MTD looks at gross turnover before expenses, not your taxable profit. This catches out a lot of drivers who naturally think in terms of what they actually earned after commission and costs.
A spreadsheet on its own does not meet the MTD requirement. You can keep using one if it is connected to bridging software that submits your figures to HMRC in the right format. Otherwise you need MTD-compatible software that keeps digital records and files directly.
No penalty point is issued for a late quarterly update during 2026/27, because of the soft landing. You still need to submit it as soon as possible, since all four quarterly updates must be filed before you can submit your final declaration, and the soft landing does not apply to that final declaration.
No. MTD changes how often and in what format you report your income to HMRC. It does not change the income tax or National Insurance rates that apply to your profit, and it does not change your payment dates.
Worth keeping an eye on. The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027, based on your 2025/26 return. A driver who is comfortably under £50,000 now can still be caught by the lower threshold a year later.
This page is general guidance, not advice for your own circumstances. It was correct as at the date shown at the top, and tax rules and rates change over time. Please take advice on your own position before acting on anything here.
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