Free mtd software
- The VAT on it
- £20
- Net, the figure before VAT
- £100
- Gross, the total paid
- £120
Every figure on this page is computed from the figures you enter, by the method stated beside it. Vatnix supplies the rates and thresholds and cites all of them: the standard rate of 20%, the reduced rate of 5% and the zero rate from GOV.UK's VAT rates guide, and the £90,000 registration threshold, the £88,000 deregistration threshold and the one-calendar-month-and-7-days return deadline from GOV.UK's register for VAT and VAT returns guides. The defaults are a worked example, not advice about your own supplies.
Free MTD software is a real category, and it is narrower than the search suggests. Since Making Tax Digital for VAT, a return has to reach HMRC from software that is compatible with it, so the question a VAT-registered sole trader is actually asking is which of the free and near-free options will take the nine box figures out of a spreadsheet and submit them without buying a whole ledger. This page sets out what free actually covers, what bridging software is, what the digital records requirement means for a spreadsheet, and where Vatnix sits: we work the figures and keep the records, and we do not submit.
Open the VAT receipt Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Work out whether you need a ledger or a bridge
If your books are already in a spreadsheet and you only need the nine box totals to reach HMRC, bridging software is the whole job. If you want invoicing and bank feeds too, you are buying a ledger and the VAT is one module of it.
Check what the free tier actually includes
Free usually means one VAT registration, one submission route and no support, and some packages are free only under a turnover cap. Read what happens at the cap before the quarter you cross it, not after.
Check the digital records, not just the submission
Making Tax Digital asks for the records to be kept digitally and linked, not just the totals typed in at the end. A tool that submits a number you retyped from a paper list satisfies the filing and not the record keeping.
Free mtd software: common questions
Does Vatnix submit my VAT return to HMRC?
No, and it never will. Submitting requires software HMRC recognises and an authorised connection to their API. Vatnix works out the figures and keeps the digital records behind them; you or your accountant submit from software that is compatible with Making Tax Digital. HMRC can charge a penalty of up to £400 for sending a paper return when you are not exempt (GOV.UK, VAT returns: how to submit your return).
Is free MTD software good enough for a sole trader?
For a lot of sole traders, yes. If the records are in a spreadsheet and there is one VAT registration, a free bridging tool submits the same nine numbers a paid ledger would. What free tiers usually lack is support, more than one registration, and any help getting the figures right in the first place, which is the part that actually goes wrong.
How often do I have to send a VAT return?
Usually every 3 months, and a VAT-registered business must send one even with no VAT to pay or reclaim (GOV.UK, VAT returns). The deadline for submitting online is normally one calendar month and 7 days after the end of the accounting period, and that is also the deadline for the money to reach HMRC.
Vatnix Pro
Keeping what you work out
The calculators and their answers are free forever. Pro turns them into your VAT record: every quarter kept with the figures behind each box, sales and purchases held as the digital records Making Tax Digital asks for, the rolling twelve-month turnover tracked against the threshold, and the lot exportable for whoever actually submits the return.
- Email the quarter's summary to your accountant
- Connect your own Stripe account
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
£29per month, whole business
Start Vatnix Pro PricingRenews monthly at the price above until you cancel. We email you before any price change.
Will it do what you need for Free mtd software?
Tell us what your business needs and we will tell you straight whether Vatnix Pro does it today, whether it is coming, or whether you are better off with an accountant or a submission-capable package. A person reads these and replies.
Cite or embed this figure
A VAT-registered business usually sends a VAT return every 3 months, and the deadline for submitting it online is one calendar month and 7 days after the end of the accounting period, which is also the deadline for paying HMRC (GOV.UK).
VAT receipt (The VAT on it): £20, Vatnix, worked example.
Cite as: "Free mtd software, Vatnix", updated 2026-09-05, https://vatnix.com/free-mtd-software/.