Making Tax Digital starts in April — what independent yoga teachers need to know
· 5 min read
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax begins April 2026. Here's what it means for sole trader yoga teachers and studio owners in the UK.
If you’re a sole trader running a yoga studio in the UK, something changed recently that’s worth knowing about before April arrives.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for ITSA) is a new HMRC requirement that means, from April 2026, self-employed people earning over £50,000 will need to keep digital records of their income and expenses — and submit quarterly updates to HMRC rather than one annual self-assessment return.
The threshold drops to £30,000 in April 2027, and £20,000 in April 2028.
If you’re reading this and thinking “that’s going to be most independent yoga studio owners within a couple of years” — you’re right.
What MTD actually means in practice
The requirement to keep digital records is the key change. Spreadsheets and manual paper records are no longer acceptable under MTD — you’ll need to be using software that’s compatible with HMRC’s systems and capable of submitting data directly.
You’ll also be submitting four times a year instead of once, which means keeping your records more up to date throughout the year, rather than the traditional scramble in January.
This sounds like more admin. For some people, it genuinely will be — especially if their current system involves a notebook and a shoebox of receipts.
But for a lot of studio owners, going through this process might actually reveal that you already have more digital records than you think.
The records you might already have
Think about where your income comes from as a studio owner:
Your booking software. If you’re using reservie (or any booking platform that processes payments), you’ve already got a digital record of every class booking and every payment — date, amount, student, class. That’s income data in a structured, searchable form. When your accountant asks for quarterly records, a lot of that work is already done.
Your Stripe or payment processor. If you’re taking card payments, you’ve got a transaction log. Stripe’s exports are clean and timestamped.
Your bank. Most business bank accounts now have apps with categorisation tools and decent export functionality.
The gap — for most people — is expenses. Receipts for props, insurance, room hire, CPD training, travel to workshops. This is where a dedicated accounting tool (FreeAgent, QuickBooks, Xero — several are HMRC-approved for MTD) will fill the gap.
What to do before April
If your income is over £50,000 this tax year (2025/26), you need to be MTD-ready before 6 April 2026. Here’s a sensible checklist:
1. Check whether you’re in scope. Your “qualifying income” under MTD includes your self-employment income plus any property income. If it’s over £50k combined, you’re in the first wave.
2. Choose MTD-compatible accounting software. HMRC maintains an approved software list. If you don’t have an accountant, this is a good moment to either get one or look at cloud accounting tools designed for sole traders and small businesses.
3. Check your booking and payment records are exportable. If you’re using reservie, your class payment data is already recorded and accessible. Make sure you know where to find it and how to export it for your accountant.
4. Set up a simple quarterly habit. MTD isn’t asking you to do more paperwork — it’s asking you to spread it across the year. One hour every quarter is manageable if your records are in decent shape.
5. Talk to your accountant. If you have one, they should already be in touch about this. If they haven’t mentioned it, raise it now.
The bigger picture
MTD is, in a sense, catching up with what a lot of well-run studios are already doing. The yoga businesses that cope best with this shift will be the ones that have been running clean, simple digital systems — not necessarily sophisticated ones, just consistent ones.
A booking system that automatically records income. A business bank account that’s separate from personal finances. A phone photo of every receipt. That’s genuinely most of what you need.
The UK yoga market is now worth over £1 billion, and it’s growing. The studios that run well — that don’t drown in admin, that keep their records tidy, that have time to focus on teaching — are the ones best placed to grow with it.
Going digital isn’t the threat. Still running everything on WhatsApp and a spreadsheet in 2028 is the threat.
If you’re not already running your bookings digitally
If you’re still taking bookings by email, text or WhatsApp, now is a genuinely good time to change that — not just for MTD, but for your own sanity.
reservie is a booking system built specifically for independent yoga studios. You can be up and running in about 15 minutes, with an embeddable booking widget on your website, automated confirmation emails, and payment via Stripe. Your income records are handled from day one.
It’s not going to file your tax return for you. But it’s one less thing to piece together in January.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is a new system. The information in this post reflects HMRC guidance as of March 2026 — always check gov.uk or speak to your accountant for the most current requirements.
