TapTax vs Kletta
Low-cost MTD software vs a premium app with a human bookkeeper

Kletta and TapTax both want to take the dread out of self-employed tax, but they answer two different questions. Kletta asks: what if a beautifully designed app could quietly hand your books to a real UK bookkeeper who checks your Self Assessment for you? TapTax asks: what if MTD quarterly filing was so cheap and so simple that there was nothing left to dread? Your honest answer to "do I want a human in the loop, and will I pay premium prices for it?" should decide most of this comparison.

In short: if you value human reassurance, have layered income like property or CIS, and a £19 to £49 monthly fee feels fair, Kletta is a genuinely strong, HMRC-recognised choice you can file with today. If you mainly want low-cost, one-tap MTD filing with open-banking automation and are comfortable with self-serve software, TapTax is the sharper and far cheaper pick, once its recognition is confirmed.

The single biggest difference: software-only vs software-plus-a-human

Kletta, built by a Finnish team and now serving the UK market, is more than an app. Its paid tiers put a real UK bookkeeper behind your account and include a human Self Assessment review, and a two-sided accountant channel lets a practising accountant work alongside you inside the product. That is the core of what you pay for: professional time, not just clever automation. For a sole trader who would otherwise hire a high-street accountant, bundling that into a tidy mobile app at a fixed monthly fee is a real proposition.

TapTax takes the opposite stance. It is pure software: you connect your existing UK bank through open banking, let AI categorise transactions, snap receipts, track mileage and file your quarterly MTD updates yourself in a few taps. There is no bookkeeper and no review by a person, and the price reflects that. The promise is "Tap. File. Done." rather than "we'll handle it for you."

HMRC recognition: where Kletta is ahead today

This is the most important honest point in the whole comparison. Kletta is HMRC-recognised software. It can file Self Assessment and MTD submissions to HMRC right now. TapTax is built for Making Tax Digital and is MTD-compatible, but its HMRC production recognition is still pending at the time of writing. We will not pretend otherwise: if your single requirement is "a recognised tool I can file a live return through this week," Kletta has that, and TapTax does not yet.

That does not make TapTax the wrong long-term choice, because recognition is a process, not a feature gap in the product, but you should confirm TapTax's current recognition status before depending on it for a real submission, and Kletta deserves full credit for being live today. Pie (pie.tax) is another genuinely HMRC-recognised option, offering free Self Assessment filing with paid add-ons, so it is worth a look if recognition-today is your deciding factor.

Pricing in detail: what you actually pay each year

At Kletta's entry £19/mo you pay £228 a year; the top £49/mo tier is £588 a year. TapTax Starter is £59.88 a year and Pro is £119.88, so the gap runs from roughly £170 to well over £450 annually. That difference is not Kletta overcharging; it is the cost of the human service baked in. The question is simply whether you want, and will use, that human help.

You can sanity-check your own numbers for free before choosing either tool. The TapTax sole trader tax calculator estimates your 2025/26 liability across the £12,570 personal allowance, the 20% basic band to £50,270, 40% to £125,140 and 45% above, plus Class 4 NIC at 6% then 2%. If you think your tax code looks wrong, check your tax code takes a couple of minutes.

Income breadth: where Kletta genuinely wins

It would be unfair not to say this plainly. Kletta is built to handle more than straightforward trading income. It explicitly covers property income, capital allowances and CIS, and the human bookkeeper on paid tiers means those trickier areas get a second pair of eyes.

That matters for real situations. A landlord filing the property pages (SA105) has to apply the finance-cost restriction, where mortgage interest relief is limited to a 20% tax credit rather than a full deduction, and the Furnished Holiday Lettings regime was abolished from April 2025, so old FHL advantages no longer apply. A construction subcontractor under CIS will usually have had 20% deducted at source if registered, or 30% if not, and is typically due a refund through Self Assessment. Capital allowances on equipment add another layer. These are exactly the places a human review earns its keep, and Kletta leans into them.

TapTax's focus is sole trader trading income filed cheaply and quickly. If your own situation is layered, run the numbers first with the rental income tax calculator or, for construction work, the dedicated CIS view, so you understand the refund or liability before deciding how much hand-holding you actually need.

Ease of use and the mobile experience

Both apps are properly mobile-first and far friendlier than desktop-heritage accounting software. Kletta's "snap-and-forget" pitch is about capturing receipts and letting the bookkeeper and system do the rest, which suits people who want to offload mental load entirely. TapTax's mobile flow is about doing it yourself fast: connect your bank via open banking, watch transactions stream in, let AI categorise them, then file your quarterly update with one tap. Onboarding friction differs too: TapTax's open-banking connection shows your transaction history within minutes and costs nothing on the free tier while you try it, whereas Kletta's value depends on engaging its human service, so setup is geared towards a bookkeeper relationship that is more involved but delivers more once running.

Who should choose which

A freelance designer earning £62,000 with a Monzo business account is in the first MTD wave from April 2026 with mostly trading income, and does not need a bookkeeper checking simple invoices. TapTax connects to Monzo via open banking, costs £59.88 a year at Starter, and files quarterly updates once recognition is confirmed; Kletta would work too, but at £228+ a year you would pay for human help you may rarely use.

A landlord with three properties plus self-employment is Kletta territory. Property pages, the finance-cost restriction and possible capital allowances all benefit from human review, and Kletta covers them directly; the premium is justified by the complexity. A CIS subcontractor expecting a refund can self-file cheaply with TapTax and reclaim over-deducted CIS through Self Assessment, or pay Kletta's higher fee to have a bookkeeper remove that worry. And if you must file a live return this week, be honest with yourself: TapTax recognition is pending, so choose Kletta or another recognised tool such as Pie, then revisit TapTax once its status is confirmed and you want to cut next year's cost.

The bottom line

Kletta is a polished, HMRC-recognised app that sells software plus a real human bookkeeper, so it shines for layered income and anyone wanting a person to review their Self Assessment. You pay £19 to £49 a month for that, and for the right user it is money well spent.

TapTax is the low-cost, freemium, self-serve alternative built for Making Tax Digital, with open-banking import, AI categorisation, receipts, mileage and one-tap filing at £0 to £9.99 a month. It is better value for straightforward sole traders, with one caveat stated plainly: its HMRC recognition is pending, so confirm current status before relying on it for a live submission. If price and simplicity matter most and your tax life is mainly trading income, TapTax is the one to watch.

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