The eTax AI blog
Practical guidance on tax, bookkeeping and Making Tax Digital for UK sole traders, landlords and small companies — from the chartered accountants and AI agents behind eTax AI. Clear, useful information without the jargon or padding, so you know what matters before the next deadline arrives.
What happens to bookkeepers now the AI can do the bookkeeping?
We run a fifty-staff practice and we are not cutting a single bookkeeper. What AI actually removes, why bookkeeping prices will fall, how our system differs from Dext — and why the job moves to the front of the relationship.
MTD — what should I actually do? And do I really have to pay for it?
Days from the first 7 August deadline, and the question we are actually asked is not how MTD works — it is whether you have to buy software. You don't. Here is the free route, what QuickBooks, Xero, Sage and FreeAgent really cost, and why we would not let a bank file it for you.
Starting up in business: what you actually need to sort out
The list we work through with every new client, updated for 2026 — sole trader or company, registering, banks, Making Tax Digital, VAT, payroll, CIS and insurance. Most people meet this list in the wrong order, after something goes wrong.
What can I actually claim? A guide for small limited company owners
The question we're asked more than any other. The obvious claims, and the ones nobody ever tells you about — spouse salary, renting your home office to your company, pre-trading costs, electric cars and the £300 nobody uses.
Which cloud accounting package should you actually use in 2026?
We get asked this every week, so we've written down what we think. No fence-sitting: Zoho Books 5/5, Xero 4/5, QuickBooks Online 2/5 — and exactly why, from firms who do real bookkeeping in all three.