Free UK tax spreadsheets, trackers and checklists

Choose the Sole Trader Tax Spreadsheet when one self-employed business is the main focus and you want a straightforward income and expense ledger. It suits a freelancer, consultant or service provider who can describe most transactions under one activity. Its dashboard concentrates on gross business income, recorded costs, provisional profit and a planning comparison between actual expenses and the trading allowance.

Choose the Side Hustle Tax Tracker when several small activities need to be viewed together. A PAYE employee might tutor, sell downloads and complete occasional gig work in the same year. The activity field keeps those streams visible while the dashboard shows their combined gross-income position. That matters because a person should not assume the £1,000 trading allowance applies independently to every relevant app or activity.

Neither workbook treats salary as side-hustle turnover. Keep P60, payslip and tax-code information separately, then enter PAYE income in the relevant calculator or Self Assessment process. Combining salary with business sales inside a transaction log would obscure the gross trading-income test and make the business dashboard less useful.

A reseller needs an item trail. Stock cost, platform fee, buyer-paid postage, seller postage and packaging all affect the result of one sale. The Reseller Profit Tracker links inventory and sales with an item ID and makes the distinction between personal possessions and stock bought for resale visible. That does not issue a legal ruling, but it prevents a wardrobe clear-out and a resale business from being silently combined.

A creator needs an income-source trail. Advertising, affiliate commission, subscriptions, sponsorships, tips and UGC work can be paid through different dashboards and agencies. The Creator Income Tax Tracker records platform, payer, campaign, gross amount and fees, then provides a combined platform summary. It also includes a prompt for non-cash arrangements that may need review without automatically declaring every product received to be taxable.

Both workbooks emphasise gross figures before platform deductions. This supports reconciliation and is relevant to the trading allowance, which HMRC describes by reference to gross annual income before expenses. The exact reporting and expense treatment still depends on the facts, so each dedicated page links the tracker to the correct calculator and educational guide.

The checklist is the year-end control document rather than another transaction log. Its six pages cover filing need, 2025/26 deadlines, income evidence, expenses, tax already paid, review, submission, payment and retention. The pages can be printed or marked in a PDF app, and every page carries the UK Tax Toolbox branding so it is easy to recognise in a records folder.

For the 2025/26 tax year, the standard online filing and payment deadline is 31 January 2027. The checklist also includes 5 October 2026 for telling HMRC where registration is required, 31 October 2026 for paper returns, the conditional 30 December date for eligible PAYE-code collection and 31 July 2027 for a second payment on account where applicable. Users should confirm their actual position in the HMRC account because conditions and exceptions can affect the timetable.

Use a tracker throughout the year, then use the checklist to test completeness before filing. Save the submitted return, calculation and receipt with the completed checklist. HMRC generally says self-employed records should be retained for at least five years after the relevant 31 January submission deadline, although other circumstances can have different rules.

The files are hosted directly on UK Tax Toolbox and do not require a third-party download account. After download, the workbook or PDF is local to the user’s device or chosen cloud storage. UK Tax Toolbox does not receive the entries. This is privacy-friendly, but it also means users must protect their own copies.

Avoid placing unnecessary UTRs, National Insurance numbers, full customer addresses or bank credentials in a tracker. Evidence references can point to secure receipts and statements without embedding those documents. Use device encryption, a reputable storage provider and access controls appropriate to the sensitivity of the records. Do not email an unprotected workbook containing private financial details.

Keep at least one backup and preserve a dated year-end copy after reconciliation. If formulas or dropdowns are changed, save the modified version separately so the original template remains available. When importing an XLSX file into another spreadsheet app, verify that formulas, number formats and data validation still behave as expected.