Making Tax Digital and Savings Rates
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"A big change" - that's how HMRC has described a major transformation starting in April, which affects the way sole traders and landlords report their income and expenses. The tax office has told Money Box that self assessment has to be modernised to reduce errors and allow them to collect more of what's owed to the Treasury. It's called Making Tax Digital and this first wave is going to affect about a million people who have a turnover above £50,000 a year. At the moment, self-employed people put the details of their business accounts into their tax return once a year on the Government's own website or on paper. But from April the new system will force them to use commercial software which sends quarterly summaries to HMRC and then repeats all that information in their end of year tax return to which they must add any other taxable income details. We'll speak to HMRC about that.
According to the financial data firm Moneyfacts, since the Bank of England cut the interest rate to 3.75% in December around a third of providers have dropped their rates on their savings products. Where are the best deals?
As energy prices rise, there's a warning about the scammers trying to trick you into giving away your data.
And new research suggests only 1 in 4 people know about a big change coming for pensions and inheritance tax. We'll answer listener questions.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah Reporter: Dan Whitworth and Jo Krasner Researcher: Eimear Devlin Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 3rd January 2026)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials |
| 0:22.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffle and Rommashranganathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, |
| 0:27.9 | it's really all about the traitors uncoaked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and |
| 0:32.6 | podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. Hello, in today's Moneybox podcast, forget the gym, the language |
| 0:39.2 | class and the diet. What New Year's resolutions should savers be making? |
| 0:43.9 | 2026, I just want to like be better with my money, you know, not spend as much out getting food |
| 0:49.1 | with my mates and having nothing to show for it the next day. And with the Bank of England |
| 0:53.0 | cutting rates at the end of last year, what are the best deals? |
| 0:56.0 | As energy prices rise, so do energy bills scams. |
| 1:00.0 | And listeners have been asking what the new rules for pensions and inheritance tax will mean, will explain all. |
| 1:06.0 | But first, a big change. |
| 1:08.0 | That's how HMRC has described a major transformation starting in April to how |
| 1:13.0 | sole traders and landlords report their income and expenses. The tax office has told Moneybox |
| 1:18.6 | that self-assessment has to be modernised to reduce errors and allow them to collect more of what's |
| 1:23.7 | owed to the Treasury. It's called Making Tax Digital, and this first wave is going |
| 1:29.1 | to affect about a million people who have a turnover, that's the business's gross income, |
| 1:34.1 | above £50,000 a year. At the moment, self-employed people put the details of their business |
| 1:39.3 | accounts into their tax return just once a year on the government's own website or even on paper. |
| 1:45.3 | But from April, they must use commercial software instead, which sends summaries to HMRC |
... |
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