Sage wants to help UK small businesses deal with changing tax rules

2 hours ago 2

Hot on the heels of the UK’s latest budget announcement under the new Labour leadership, accounting giant Sage has launched a free tool to help customers get to grips with the changes.

Sage Accounting Individual Free has been made available to help sole traders and landlords prepare for upcoming digital tax regulations that they will have to comply with from 2026.

The upcoming Making Tax Digital for Income Tax legislation will affect around 2.8 million sole traders and landlords earning more than £20,000 across the nation.

Sage prepares for upcoming MTD legislation

With the expansion of the government’s digital tax legislation to more types of workers, digital record keeping will be mandated. Sage’s solution targets those who currently rely on paper-based tracking with an easy-to-use system that’s available on the web and mobile.

Neal Watkins, EVP for Small Business at Sage, indicated that many existing tools can be time-consuming, affecting small businesses’ abilities to focus on generating income. He added: “Our goal is to help small businesses and sole traders thrive by providing them with the tools and advice to succeed and make it easier for the smallest businesses to join the digital economy.”

Sage’s MTD solution allows users to capture, categorize and organize incoming and outgoing money for free, but they can also choose to upgrade to more comprehensive systems for more advanced financial monitoring.

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray said that MTD systems help to reduce errors, thus making the tax system more efficient. Murray added: “It is fantastic to see industry leaders working with us to modernise the tax system by delivering free software for tens of thousands of UK businesses.”

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The company has committed to making this free system a reality for sole traders and landlords up and down the UK, but no launch date has been provided yet.