Making Tax Digital, quarterly updates — what it actually means for you
A plain, no-jargon look at Making Tax Digital for locum GPs — what's changed, what "quarterly updates" really involves, and how to stop it feeling like a burden.
- mtd
- tax
- self-assessment
If you’ve heard “Making Tax Digital” mentioned and quietly hoped it didn’t apply to you yet — fair enough, it’s confusing. Here’s the short version, GP to GP.
What MTD actually changes
Instead of one big self-assessment return once a year, MTD for Income Tax means sending HMRC a summary of your income and expenses roughly every three months, plus a final wrap-up at year end. It sounds like more work. In practice, if you’re already logging sessions and expenses as you go, it’s mostly just submitting what you’ve already got, more often.
Does it apply to you yet?
Whether you’re in scope depends on your income level, and — fair warning — the exact thresholds have shifted before and could shift again. Rather than print a number here that might be out of date by the time you read it, check your status directly on gov.uk or with your accountant. If you’re not sure, it’s worth checking even if you think you’re under the threshold — the rules have a habit of catching people out a year later than they expected.
What “quarterly” really means in practice
You’re not doing a full tax calculation four times a year — it’s closer to a running total. Each quarter, you report income and expenses for that period. HMRC builds up a cumulative picture across the year, and you square everything up properly at the end. The deadlines land roughly seven weeks after each quarter closes, so there’s no last-minute scramble the way January used to feel.
The bit that actually saves you
Here’s the honest truth: MTD is only painful if you’re starting from a shoebox of receipts every quarter. If your sessions, mileage, and expenses are logged as you go — which, let’s be honest, most locums say they’ll do and then don’t — a quarterly update becomes a five-minute job instead of a stressful one.
Tip: Don’t wait for the quarter deadline to log anything. Log the session the day you do it, log the mileage the day you drive it. Future-you, staring at a Sunday-night deadline, will be very grateful.
Where LocumBook fits in
LocumBook’s MTD export pulls together your sessions, mileage, and other expenses into the quarterly figures HMRC expects — so instead of reconstructing three months of work from memory, you’re reviewing numbers that are already there.
This isn’t personal tax advice — MTD rules and thresholds change, and your situation is your own. When in doubt, check gov.uk or ask your accountant.
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