How much to save
Key dates
Set aside vs. paid
VAT registration watch
Profit build-up
Add income from a client
Income this year
| Date | Client | Description | Status | Amount | GBP | Fee | VAT |
|---|
Add a client
Save the clients you work with, their usual currency, and their VAT treatment. When you pick a client on the Income screen these fill in automatically — you can still change them for any one payment. Set an overseas business client to "Outside scope" so their income isn't counted toward the VAT threshold.
Your clients
| Client | Default currency | VAT | Notes | Income entries | Total (GBP) |
|---|
Add a business expense
Expenses this year
| Date | Description | Category | Allowable | Amount | Receipt |
|---|
Assets & capital allowances
Already own something you now use for this business — a car, a laptop, tools? This is different from an everyday expense: you don't sell it to the business for a one-off deduction, you introduce it at its market value today and claim capital allowances — written off over several years, not all at once. Cars are written down slowly (14%/6% a year); most equipment is written down at 14% a year.
Add a subscription
Track recurring costs (software, memberships, tools). Give the start date — the date money is first taken — and how often you're billed. Leave the end date blank while it's still active. Each payment that falls inside a tax year is counted as an allowable expense for that year automatically.
Subscriptions
Charges & totals below are for the selected tax year (payments taken 6 Apr – 5 Apr).
| Description | Category | Amount | Billed | Start | End | Allowable | Charges | Total |
|---|
Home working allowance
Choose how to claim the cost of working from home. The app uses whichever you select as an allowable expense.
Simplified flat rate
Calculated allowance
Add a pension contribution
Log each personal pension contribution as you make it, not an assumed annual figure. Basic-rate (20%) relief is added to your pot automatically; if your profits reach the 40% or 45% band you claim the extra relief through Self Assessment — this app works that out from your contributions. Pension contributions reduce your Income Tax but not your National Insurance.
Contributions this year
| Date | Provider / note | Entered as | You paid | Gross |
|---|
Net → gross is grossed up by ÷0.8 (adds 20%). Annual allowance is generally £60,000 (2026/27), and you can't get relief on contributions above your relevant earnings — this tool doesn't cap for that, so keep within your limits.
Your pension tax relief
Add settled RSUs
When RSUs vest/settle, their market value on that date counts as employment income for that tax year. Enter the settlement in £. It's added to your income for Income Tax (and pushes your bands / personal-allowance taper) — but it isn't subject to Class 2/4 National Insurance. When you later sell the shares, record it under "Share sales" below for Capital Gains.
Settlements
Income counted in the selected tax year .
| Date | Grant | Shares | Price | Value (income) |
|---|
Add a share sale (capital gains)
Record selling vested shares. The gain is the sale proceeds minus the cost base — for RSUs the cost base is the value they settled at (which you already paid Income Tax on). Enter the settlement price as the cost per share. Net gains above the annual exempt amount are taxed as Capital Gains; losses reduce your gains.
Share sales
Gains counted in the selected tax year .
| Date | Description | Shares | Sale £ | Cost £ | Proceeds | Gain/Loss |
|---|
This year's RSU tax
Add recurring income (retainer)
Regular client income, like a monthly retainer. Give the first payment date and how often it's received; each payment landing in a tax year is counted as income for that year. Spans tax years automatically.
Recurring income
Income counted in the selected tax year .
| Description | Amount | Frequency | Start | End | Payments | Total |
|---|
Add mileage
Business travel at HMRC simplified rates: cars/vans 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles in the year then 25p, motorcycles 24p, bicycles 20p. This replaces claiming actual vehicle running costs, so don't also enter fuel/servicing as expenses.
Mileage this year
| Date | Description | Vehicle | Miles | Allowance |
|---|
Other taxable income & reliefs
Totals for the selected tax year. Dividends and savings interest are taxed at their own rates on top of your profit (with the dividend allowance and personal savings allowance applied automatically). Gift Aid donations extend your basic-rate band — enter what you actually paid.
Effect on this year
MTD quarterly view
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (mandatory from April 2026 if your qualifying income is over £50,000) requires a cumulative update each quarter. These are your income and allowable expenses for each standard quarter, built from your dated entries.
Trends & charts
Self Assessment summary
Your figures mapped to the main Self Assessment boxes, to copy across when you file. Box numbers are indicative and can move year to year — always check against the current HMRC forms.
Self Assessment estimate
Income Tax breakdown
National Insurance
Payments on account
Your businesses
Each business keeps its own income & expenses — switch between them from the header. Your Self Assessment estimate combines them all; MTD reports each one separately.
Your profile
Saved to your account and used across every tax year. These details appear at the top of your CSV export.
Business & tax details
Business name & start date now live under Your businesses above — each business has its own.
Personal tax status
Adds the Blind Person's Allowance to your tax-free amount (e.g. £3,250 for 2026/27, £3,130 for 2025/26). It applies to every tax year while ticked, so untick it for any year before you were registered. You qualify if you're certified blind/severely sight impaired (in Scotland or Northern Ireland, if you can't do work for which eyesight is essential).
Student loan is charged at 9% (6% postgraduate) on income above the plan threshold, settled through Self Assessment. Scotland uses Scottish Income Tax bands for your trading/employment income (savings, dividends and NI stay UK-wide). Marriage Allowance transfers £1,260 of personal allowance — "receiving" gives you a £252 tax reduction.
Defaults for new work
Your account
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax sandbox
Checking…
Connecting sends you to HMRC to sign in and grant access. Nothing is submitted automatically — you confirm every submission.
Your details
Submitting for this business — switch business in the header. NINO from your profile.
Obligations
Your quarterly-update and final-declaration deadlines from HMRC for .
Quarterly update
Cumulative self-employment figures from 6 April to the selected quarter end, built from your dated income & allowable expenses.
Simplified home-office and mileage allowances are annual and aren't included in quarterly figures.
Tax calculation & final declaration
Trigger an in-year estimate any time. The final declaration is a legal year-end submission that replaces your Self Assessment return.
Tax rates for
These are pre-filled with the confirmed rates. Edit them to model changes or a future year, then Save. Reset restores the official figures.
Options
Show or hide tabs
Tidy the navigation to just the tabs you use. For example, if you don't drive for work, hide Mileage. Hidden tabs stop appearing in the menu — you can bring them back here anytime. Dashboard, Profile and Settings always stay.
Data
Your data is saved to your account and synced securely to the cloud, so you can sign in from any device and pick up where you left off. Only you — and anyone you grant read-only access — can see it. Download a JSON backup anytime for your own records.
Data encryption at rest
Whether the tax documents and receipts stored in the database are encrypted with per-account keys (see the encryption plan).
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MTD beta access
Grant or revoke MTD access for a user by email (they must have a Set Aside account).
Sandbox test users HMRC
Create an HMRC sandbox individual enrolled for MTD Income Tax — no email verification. Sign in with these during Connect; use the NINO for Obligations.
The linked login uses the same name & NINO, with email firstname.lastname@setaside.tax and MTD beta enabled.
Set Aside test account
Create a ready-to-use Set Aside login — email pre-verified, no confirmation email. A strong password is generated for you.
MTD developer tools HMRC sandbox
Validate the fraud-prevention headers HMRC requires, and seed stateful sandbox data for a test NINO. Connect to HMRC (from the MTD tab, signed in as the test user) first.
Seed creates a self-employment business and sets ITSA status to MTD Mandated for the active tax year — both are needed for a test user to submit quarterly updates and finalise statefully.