Taxmo

Taxmo is UK bookkeeping and tax software for sole traders, freelancers, contractors, expats and small businesses. It tracks income and expenses and revises estimates for Income Tax, National Insurance and VAT as users add entries. It supports VAT, Income Tax, National Insurance, Self Assessment and CIS. Paid plans can file VAT returns with HMRC using the Making Tax Digital API, but Taxmo prepares and reviews Self Assessment returns without submitting them. MTD for Income Tax submission is marked as coming soon.

Users can capture receipts from photos and PDFs, while bank imports use read-only, on-demand Open Banking authorization; CSV uploads have no history limit. The accountant platform syncs with Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent, and deadlines can be exported as an iCal feed. Taxmo is available on web, iOS and Android, with API access for Pro subscribers. Pricing includes a free plan, a free trial and paid plans from £9.99/mo. Starter is £9.99 a month, billed excluding VAT; Pro is £19.99 a month, also excluding VAT. The Accountant plan is £14.99 a month per active client, with the first two clients free.

Taxmo combines bookkeeping, tax estimates and VAT filing, with a free plan and paid options. Note that Self Assessment submission is not available through the service.

Taxmo suits self-employed people and small businesses that need bookkeeping, tax estimates or VAT filing. Its accountant tools and integrations may also suit practices managing client accounts.

Taxmo is UK bookkeeping and tax software for sole traders, freelancers, contractors, expats and small businesses. It will suit people who want to follow tax estimates as they record business activity and file VAT returns from the same service. Its strongest case is routine bookkeeping paired with direct VAT filing; Self Assessment still needs to be submitted elsewhere.

Overview

Taxmo tracks income and expenses and updates estimates of Income Tax, National Insurance and VAT as entries are added. That gives sole traders and small businesses a running view of likely liabilities, rather than leaving tax calculations until a return is due. Invoice generation and financial reports add practical bookkeeping tools, though entry and import limits on the cheaper plans may matter to busier businesses.

Paid plans submit VAT returns directly to HMRC through the Making Tax Digital API, a useful end-to-end step for VAT-registered businesses. Taxmo can prepare and review Self Assessment returns, but it does not submit them to HMRC. MTD for Income Tax submission is marked as coming soon, so anyone seeking a single service to handle both kinds of filing should look elsewhere for Self Assessment submission.

Key features

Bookkeeping and receipt capture

Receipt capture extracts supplier, amount, date and VAT from photos and PDFs, helping reduce manual entry. Starter adds WhatsApp receipt capture with a monthly cap; Pro raises that allowance and includes unlimited receipt scanning, with additional WhatsApp receipts charged at £0.05 each. Pro includes email receipt capture. The quotas make Starter more suitable for modest receipt volumes than a business processing them frequently.

Bank imports use read-only, on-demand Open Banking authorization. Starter caps imports at 150 per 90 days, while Pro includes unlimited imports. CSV statement uploads have no history limit, which gives users a route to bring in older transactions without relying on the bank import allowance.

Connections, access and security

The accountant platform syncs live in both directions with Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent. Calendar deadlines can be exported as an iCal feed. Pro also offers a read-only REST API capped at 300 requests per 15-minute window, so it can support limited data access but is not an unrestricted integration channel.

Taxmo says traffic uses HTTPS with TLS and HSTS, and that HMRC OAuth tokens are encrypted with AES-256-GCM. It supports passwordless sign-in by magic link or Google OAuth, states that it follows UK GDPR, names processors in its privacy policy, and lets users export or delete their data.

Pricing

Taxmo has a free plan, a free trial and paid plans from £9.99/mo. Prices exclude VAT. The free plan costs nothing and includes 25 entries per quarter, a VAT dashboard, calculators, invoice generation, a filing guide and a basic Tax Savings Finder. It is a low-commitment way to track a small volume of activity, but the quarterly entry cap and absence of direct VAT filing make it a limited fit for ongoing bookkeeping.

Starter costs £9.99 a month (billed). It raises the allowance to 50 entries per month and adds bank imports up to 150 per 90 days, up to 50 WhatsApp receipts per month, profit-and-loss and balance-sheet reports, and direct MTD VAT filing. It is the sensible tier for a small business that wants VAT submission and has manageable transaction volumes. The entry and import caps can become restrictive as activity grows.

Pro costs £19.99 a month (billed). It includes unlimited entries, bank imports and receipt scanning, plus 200 WhatsApp receipts per month, with each additional WhatsApp receipt charged at £0.05. It also adds an AI Assistant, Self Assessment review, team access and priority support. This is the better fit for higher volumes or shared bookkeeping, though Self Assessment review does not include HMRC submission.

Accountant costs £14.99 a month per active client, with the first two clients free. The per-client model makes it relevant to practices serving multiple clients; the cost scales with the number of active clients after the first two. The plan is described as practice pricing.

Platforms

Taxmo is available on Android, iOS and the web, and offers API access. Its maker says the mobile apps are native for both iOS and Android. Pro subscribers receive the read-only REST API, subject to its 300-request-per-15-minute limit.

Who it's for

Taxmo is best suited to UK sole traders, freelancers, contractors, expats and small businesses that want bookkeeping, current tax estimates and VAT filing in one service. Starter suits a smaller operation that needs direct VAT filing and can stay within its monthly entry and bank import limits. Pro makes more sense for higher volumes, receipt-heavy work or teams. Accountants can consider the per-active-client plan.

It is a weaker fit for anyone who needs Self Assessment submitted to HMRC through the same service. Taxmo prepares and reviews those returns, but leaves submission to the user or another provider.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Tax estimates update as income and expenses are recorded, giving users a current view of Income Tax, National Insurance and VAT.
• Pro: Paid plans can submit VAT returns directly through HMRC's Making Tax Digital API, reducing the steps between bookkeeping and filing.
• Pro: Read-only bank authorization, data export and deletion, and documented encryption and sign-in options provide useful controls for handling financial records.
• Con: Taxmo does not submit Self Assessment returns to HMRC, leaving a significant filing step outside the service.
• Con: Free and Starter have entry caps, and Starter also limits bank imports and WhatsApp receipt capture; frequent bookkeeping may push users toward Pro.
• Con: Pro's API is read-only and rate-limited, which constrains how much data it can serve to connected tools.

Alternatives

LOVAT is another freemium option with Android, iOS, web and API platforms. Its Free plan includes one data import integration, while its Start-up plan costs €27 a month (billed monthly). Consider it when that import integration or a broader platform mix matters more than Taxmo's UK bookkeeping and direct MTD VAT filing.

TaxBandits is a paid service with a free plan and platforms spanning Android, iOS, web, API and extension. Its Basic plan costs $19 a month and includes unlimited pay runs with a $0 employee fee. It may suit readers focused on pay runs; Taxmo is the more directly tailored choice for the UK bookkeeping and VAT workflow described above.

Zamp offers API access and a free 30-day sandbox. Consider it when an API-only sandbox is the priority; Taxmo offers bookkeeping and filing tools across mobile and web as well.

CCH SureTax offers API access and plans spanning technology, filing and remittance, or fully outsourced service. It is worth considering when a business wants those service options; Taxmo is aimed at smaller UK businesses handling bookkeeping and VAT themselves.

Kintsugi has API access and a free plan for global nexus monitoring, exposure and historical liability auditing, and risk assessment. It is a better match for teams focused on those monitoring and audit needs than on Taxmo's bookkeeping and VAT filing workflow.

ONESOURCE Indirect Compliance is a paid web and API option with pricing by request. Consider it when a business is looking for an indirect compliance product and is prepared to request a demo or contact sales.

Avalara AvaTax is a paid web and API service with no free plan; its Core Compliance plan costs $79 a month (billed monthly) for businesses with annual revenue under $50M and covers 12,000+ U.S. tax jurisdictions. It is the more relevant option for U.S. jurisdiction coverage; Taxmo focuses on UK bookkeeping and tax.

ONESOURCE Determination is a paid API, web, Windows, Linux and self-hosted option with pricing by request. Consider it if those deployment platforms fit the requirement.

For more options, browse Tax Compliance Software.

Verdict

Taxmo is a strong fit for a UK sole trader or small business that wants ongoing tax estimates, bookkeeping tools and direct VAT filing, especially on Starter or Pro. Its paid VAT submission and Pro's higher-volume allowances are the clearest reasons to choose it. Look elsewhere if you need Self Assessment submitted to HMRC, or if your activity exceeds Starter's caps but Pro's added features do not justify the higher monthly price.