What Side Hustlers Should Review Before 5 April 2026
March is a useful point in the year for any side hustler to pause and take stock.
The current UK tax year runs from 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026. That means there is a short window left to review what has happened in your business before the year closes. MTD (Making Tax Digital for Income Tax) starts from 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords whose qualifying income is over £50,000, with the next threshold of £30,000 applying from 6 April 2027.
This means it’s a smart time to review the basics, spot anything messy, and go into the new tax year in better shape.
1. Review what income you have actually received
The first thing to look at is your income for the year so far.
For many side hustlers, the challenge is not earning the money. It is making sure all of it has been captured properly. If money has come in through a mix of bank transfers, online platforms, card processors or marketplaces, it is easy to miss amounts, duplicate figures or rely on rough estimates.
A year-end review is a good chance to check that your records reflect what you have genuinely received, rather than what you think you received. Even a simple check now can save a lot of stress later!
If your side hustle income is small, this can still matter. HMRC says you can start trading straight away, but you must register for Self Assessment as a sole trader if you earn more than £1,000 in a tax year, and you can choose to register earlier.
2. Review your expenses while the year is still fresh
Expenses are one of the areas most likely to get pushed down the list. Really simply, if you miss an expense - you’re overpaying tax.
Subscriptions get forgotten. Receipts go missing. Personal and business spending get mixed together. By the time January rolls around, it can be much harder to work out what happened and why.
That is why March is such a good time to review your records. You are much more likely to remember what purchases were for, identify anything missing, and tidy up your bookkeeping while it is still manageable.
This becomes even more important as digital record-keeping becomes more relevant. HMRC says people within Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will need compatible software to create, store and correct digital records, send quarterly updates, and submit their tax return.
3. Check whether the trading allowance is actually right for you
A lot of people know about the £1,000 trading allowance, but fewer understand where it helps and where it can catch people out.
HMRC gives you can up to £1,000 each tax year in tax-free trading income. But using the allowance is not the same as claiming your actual business expenses. In some cases it keeps things simple. In others, claiming actual expenses may be more beneficial.
This is one of the reasons it is worth reviewing your numbers before the year ends rather than assuming the allowance is automatically the best option.
You do not need to turn this into a spreadsheet marathon. But you do want to know whether you are making decisions based on facts or assumptions.
4. Check if your records are good enough for the new tax year
A year-end review is not just about looking backwards. It is also a chance to ask whether your current setup is good enough for the year ahead.
If your records are mostly screenshots, scattered emails, partial notes and good intentions, that is useful to know now. If everything is already clear, organised and easy to total up, that is useful too.
The point is not perfection. It is visibility.
MTD applies from 6 April 2026 where qualifying self-employment and property income was over £50,000 for the 2024 to 2025 tax year, and from 6 April 2027 where qualifying income is over £30,000 for the 2025 to 2026 tax year. Even if you are not caught immediately, the direction of travel is clear: cleaner digital records matter more now than they used to.
5. Do not leave tax thinking (and stress) until January
One of the biggest mistakes side hustlers make is treating tax as a January problem.
In reality, the end of the tax year is often the better moment to step back and review what has happened. The information is fresher, the records are easier to find, and there is still a natural reset point before the new tax year begins on 6 April.
That does not mean you need every answer immediately. It means you give yourself a better chance of avoiding panic later.
6. Check whether MTD needs to be on your radar
For some readers, Making Tax Digital is something to act on now. For others, it is simply something to be aware of.
HMRC says that from 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 must use MTD for Income Tax. HMRC also says there will be no penalty points for late quarterly updates in the first tax year, 2026 to 2027, for those required to join from April 2026, although penalties can still apply for late returns or late payment.
That should not be read as a reason to ignore it. It is more a reminder that getting organised early is likely to feel much easier than scrambling later.
Final thought
Before 5 April 2026, most side hustlers do not need a dramatic tax reset.
But they do benefit from asking a few simple questions:
Have I properly captured my income?
Have I reviewed my expenses?
Are my records clear enough?
Am I making assumptions about the trading allowance?
Do I need to start paying attention to MTD?
Those questions alone can put you in a much stronger position for the new tax year.
If you want practical support with the detail behind this, that is exactly the kind of thing we help Hustle Mate members with.
