Questions and Answers
Making Tax Digital for income tax – bank accounts
If I have a non-UK bank account, how do I get it to link up with my digital bookkeeping software? Also, if I only have a personal and not a business bank account, how do I deal with that for MTD for income tax
Last updated 29 Jun 2026 | First published 29 Jun 2026
By Helen Wood, CA 1 min read
Making Tax Digital
Bookkeeping
Self Employed
Online Accounting
Digital bookkeeping solutions which are designed to be MTD for income tax compliant such as those offered by QuickBooks or Xero, have the ability to automatically pull through your bank feed to make it easier to do your regular bank reconciliations.
What if I have a bank account outside of the UK?
Where you have bank feed automation through your MTD-compliant bookkeeping software, it is so that you can match your invoices, revenue and expenses more efficiently. Overseas bank accounts which are business-related but do not integrate with your bookkeeping software can be manually reconciled. If the bank account is not business-related at all, you will not need to reconcile it at all as part of your MTD for income tax quarterly updates. For the avoidance of doubt, you are not required to share your bank feeds with HMRC as part of MTD for income tax; bank feeds simply integrate with your software in order to make your bookkeeping smoother. You only share your business income and expenses data via your quarterly updates.
Do you have to have a business bank account? I don't have one, just my personal account.
Sole traders are not legally obliged to have a separate business bank account, but it is much easier to have separate business and personal accounts. Where you use bank feed automation in your MTD-compliant software it will pull through all your banking transactions and this is a much more efficient process if it only contains business income and expenses. Also, some personal accounts forbid customers from using them for a business so there is a risk of debanking if you use a personal account for your business. For more information on business bank accounts see our guide here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sole traders are not required to have a separate business bank account, but is useful for keeping business and personal records separate. Partnerships and limited companies must have a business bank account in the business’ name.
When looking at Making Tax Digital for Income Tax the following thresholds apply:
- From 6th April 2026 if you have an annual business or property income of more than £50,000.
- From 6th April 2027 if you have an annual business or property income of more than £30,000.
- From 6th April 2028 if you have an annual business or property income of more than £20,000.
Last updated 29 Jun 2026 | First published 29 Jun 2026
This article is intended to inform rather than advise and is based on legislation and practice at the time. Taxpayer’s circumstances do vary and if you feel that the information provided is beneficial it is important that you contact us before implementation. If you take, or do not take action as a result of reading this article, before receiving our written endorsement, we will accept no responsibility for any financial loss incurred.
Helen Wood, CA
Helen is a qualified chartered accountant (CA) and joined TaxAssist in 2025 following three years as a freelance content writer for clients in the tax and accounting publishing sector. Prior to this, She spent 17 years at Big Four and Top 10 accountancy firms. Helen writes clear and helpful articles on tax and accounting for businesses and individuals.
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