Sole trader
Open nowBring in a bank CSV, review each movement, keep a source trail and derive UK Income Tax quarter figures.
Open sole-trader records →Money records · UK sole traders and landlords
Income and expenses, in order.
Add a transaction or import a bank file, check the details, and see the totals for your business. Keep up to one UK sole-trader business and one UK property business separate. No account needed to start.
Choose your records
Business or property? Keep them separate.
Open the right workspace for your activity. Personal checks and organisation guidance have their own paths below.
UK landlord
Open nowKeep UK property income and costs separate, review the proposed category and derive running totals.
Open property books →Individual
Bounded tools openMap what changed, keep your known facts and unknowns, and follow source-backed personal-tax checks.
Build my tax checklist →Limited company or small organisation
Not yetTaxSorted does not yet prepare statutory accounts, a balance sheet or a Company Tax Return. We name that gap before asking for data.
See organisation services →03 · One transaction, all the way down
Mina sells one card
A made-up example. Change the numbers and open only the depth you want. Nothing here is saved, sent or mixed with your books.
The simple answerStart here
Mina made a £180.00 sale. The marketplace charged £18.00. Her bank received £162.00.
The bank line is cash, not the whole story. Treating the £162.00 payout as the sale would hide both £18.00 of income and £18.00 of cost.
EvidenceWhy we believe it
- Marketplace sales report: buyer paid £180.00.
- Marketplace fee statement or invoice: fee £18.00.
- Bank statement: payout £162.00.
The three amounts reconcile. The bank statement alone does not prove the gross sale or the fee.
The full accounting entryDouble-entry view
| Account | Debit | Credit | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketplace receivable | £180.00 | — | The marketplace owes the sale proceeds. |
| Sales | — | £180.00 | Record the gross sale. |
| Marketplace fees | £18.00 | — | Record the fee separately. |
| Marketplace receivable | — | £18.00 | The fee reduces what is owed. |
| Bank | £162.00 | — | Cash arrives. |
| Marketplace receivable | — | £162.00 | The marketplace settles the balance. |
| Check | £360.00 | £360.00 | Debits equal credits. |
Starter Books does not yet claim to be a complete double-entry general ledger. This view shows the deeper accounting model the product is growing towards.
Profit and tax viewUK cash-basis example
Before Mina's other costs, this transaction contributes £162.00 to accounting profit: £180.00 sale less £18.00 fee.
That is not Mina's tax bill. Tax depends on the full year, other income, which costs are allowable, reliefs and personal facts. The example assumes the marketplace was collecting for Mina and the fee was wholly for this business.
Official starting points: cash-basis income and expenses and records and proof to keep.
Machine-readable viewInspect the data
A portable teaching record, not an HMRC submission format and not a promise that the unknowns have been resolved.
{
"schema": "taxsorted.accounting-example/1",
"jurisdiction": "GB",
"tax_basis": "cash",
"facts": {
"gross_sale_pence": 18000,
"marketplace_fee_pence": 1800,
"bank_payout_pence": 16200
},
"checks": [
"gross_sale_pence - marketplace_fee_pence = bank_payout_pence",
"debits = credits"
],
"unknowns": [
"whether the marketplace acted as agent or principal",
"whether the fee was wholly for the business",
"whether VAT applies"
],
"status": "teaching-example-not-saved-not-filed"
}How a record becomes a tax figure
The record, the accounting treatment and the tax calculation are different steps. Here is what each step does and how much is available today.
Evidence
What proves the event?
Invoice, receipt, statement, contract, source identity and revision.
Today: Source trail now; document attachments not yet.
Event
What actually happened?
Date, parties, amount, currency, cash direction, purpose and review state.
Today: Local accounting events are open now.
Books
Where does it belong?
Journal, ledger, account, debit, credit, corrections and reconciliation.
Today: Cash and tax postings now; full double-entry is not yet claimed.
Accounts
What does the business look like?
Turnover, costs, profit and loss, assets, debts, capital and balance sheet.
Today: Running income and cost totals now; statutory accounts not yet.
Tax
Which local rules change the accounts?
Jurisdiction, taxpayer, period, allowances, disallowances, adjustments and cited law.
Today: Bounded UK rules with dates and sources.
File
What was sent, when, and what came back?
Prepared return, human approval, submission, authority response and receipt.
Today: HMRC sandbox paths only; no production filing claim.
05 · The UK boundary
Official rules stay one click away
For many UK sole traders, cash basis records income when money is received and expenses when paid. Limited companies follow different accounting and filing duties. TaxSorted keeps those worlds separate.