The record-keeping duty is the part of Making Tax Digital that changes your day-to-day, and it is narrower than most people fear. You do not have to photograph every receipt or throw away your spreadsheet. But there are real rules, and one of them — digital links — is easy to breach without noticing.
What has to be recorded digitally
For each item of business income and expenditure, you must record digitally:
- the amount
- the date (the date of the transaction, in the tax year terms your accounting uses)
- the category it falls into
HMRC sets out what a digital record must contain in GOV.UK: digital record-keeping direction.
That is the core of it. Category means the classifications HMRC uses for reporting — the same headings that appear on the self-employment pages: turnover, cost of goods, wages, premises costs, travel, professional fees, and so on.
What does not have to be digital
Your receipts and invoices themselves do not have to be scanned or stored digitally. You still have to keep them, and HMRC can still ask for them, but a paper file of receipts backing up digital transaction records is fine.
What must be digital is the record of the transaction, not the evidence for it.
Digital links — the rule people breach by accident
A digital link is a transfer of data between pieces of software that happens without manual intervention. Once a figure has entered your digital records, it must reach HMRC without anyone retyping it.
These are digital links:
- Software that connects to other software through an API
- Exporting a CSV from one system and importing it into another
- A formula linking cells or workbooks in a spreadsheet
- Emailing a spreadsheet to your accountant, who imports it
These are not:
- Reading a number off one screen and typing it into another
- Copying a figure onto paper and entering it later
The classic breach is entirely well-intentioned: you keep beautiful digital records, then at quarter end you look at the total and type it into your filing software. That last step breaks the chain, and it is a breach even though every number is correct.
Can I still use a spreadsheet?
Yes. A spreadsheet can be your digital record, provided the data gets from the spreadsheet to HMRC by a digital link — usually through bridging software that reads the spreadsheet and submits it.
What you cannot do is keep a spreadsheet and then hand-key the totals into something else.
How long to keep records
The Self Assessment rules are unchanged: at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline for that tax year (GOV.UK: self-employed record keeping). So records for 2026/27, due 31 January 2028, are kept until at least 31 January 2033.
If HMRC opens an enquiry, keep everything until it is closed, whatever the calendar says.
Getting the habit right
The MTD record-keeping duty is not really about the rules — it is about currency. Records that are three months out of date cannot produce a quarterly update on time, however digital they are.
The people who find MTD easy have one thing in common: they process their transactions in small, frequent batches rather than one annual sitting. Whatever software you use, that is the habit worth building before your start date rather than after it.
Where TaxSwipe fits
TaxSwipe imports your bank statements, and you sort each transaction into an HMRC category with a swipe. That gives you the amount, date and category MTD requires, held digitally, without hand-typing anything — and it keeps the chain unbroken from your bank statement through to your quarterly totals.
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