TapTax vs Record OS
for self-employed tax

Record OS (record-os.com) and TapTax both want to take the dread out of self-employed tax, but they are fundamentally different kinds of product. Record OS is a service: you hand over your documents, qualified accountants prepare and file your annual Self Assessment return, and you pay a fixed per-return fee after it is done. TapTax is software: you run it yourself all year, with open-banking auto-import, AI categorisation and one-tap Making Tax Digital filing, on a low-cost freemium plan. One sells you a finished return; the other sells you the tool to do it continuously.

Here is the honest version. If you want a human to own your return once a year, particularly a complex or multi-income one, Record OS is a genuinely strong, lower-cost alternative to a traditional accountant. If you want automated, year-round bookkeeping and a quarterly-native MTD workflow as the rules tighten through 2026, TapTax is the sharper everyday tool, and it has a free tier so you can judge it before spending anything. Read on for where each genuinely wins.

The single biggest difference: a finished return versus an everyday tool

Record OS's core job is to deliver a completed, filed return. You upload P60s, bank statements and invoices, its AI extracts the figures and flags reliefs, then a qualified accountant reviews, prepares and submits the Self Assessment to HMRC, usually within about five days, with inquiry support if HMRC asks questions later. You pay a fixed fee per return, after filing. It is, in effect, an AI-accelerated accountancy practice priced well below traditional fees.

TapTax starts a layer earlier, with your day-to-day money. It connects to your existing bank via open banking, auto-imports transactions, applies AI categorisation, lets you snap receipts and tracks mileage, then rolls all of that into one-tap quarterly MTD updates. The philosophy is "Tap. File. Done." Less a once-a-year hand-off, more a continuously-maintained record that is always submission-ready.

Pricing in detail: what you actually pay

For a single complex annual return where you would rather not touch it, Record OS's fixed fee is excellent value against a typical accountant. TapTax Starter at £59.88 a year is not competing on "do my return for me"; it is buying you year-round automation and a one-tap quarterly workflow. If you value never doing a manual year-end pile-up of receipts, that automation is the thing you are paying for.

Before you choose either, the TapTax sole trader tax calculator gives you a free, no-signup estimate, and if your numbers look off it is often a wrong code, so check your tax code too.

Where Record OS genuinely wins

It would be dishonest to gloss over Record OS's real advantages, so let us state them plainly.

A qualified human owns the return. ACA or ACCA accountants prepare and file your Self Assessment, with HMRC inquiry support if questions arise. For anyone who wants the reassurance of professional sign-off rather than self-filing, that is a real, current benefit TapTax does not offer.

Complex and multi-income cases. Record OS is explicitly built for the harder returns, multiple self-employments, rental property, capital gains, foreign income, and at the specialist tier trusts, estates, crypto and expat situations. If your tax life spans several unrelated income types in one annual return, that breadth plus human review is currently the stronger fit.

Pay only for the outcome, after the fact. There is no subscription and no monthly commitment; you pay a fixed fee per return, only once it is filed. For someone who files once a year and wants zero ongoing software cost, that is a clean model.

Where TapTax genuinely wins

Automation that runs all year. Open-banking import plus AI categorisation means your records build themselves as you trade, rather than being assembled into a document pack at year-end. Receipt scanning and mileage tracking close the gaps that usually leak allowable expenses, things a once-a-year hand-off can easily miss because the receipts were never captured.

Built for the quarterly MTD era. From April 2026 the job changes from one annual return to four quarterly updates plus a final declaration. TapTax was designed around that cadence with one-tap filing. Record OS's model is the annual return, so as MTD bites, a quarterly-native tool reduces friction. The plain-English guide to MTD for sole traders walks through the timeline and what each submission must contain.

Predictable low cost and a free tier. TapTax's tiers are £0, £4.99 and £9.99 a month with everything included at each level, and you can connect your bank and test the full flow on the free tier before paying a penny. If you would rather a tiny, flat monthly cost than a £125 to £500 per-return fee, the TapTax model is simpler to budget for a straightforward sole trader.

Allowable expenses and tax angles both tools should capture

Whichever you pick, the same UK rules decide your bill for 2025/26. The personal allowance is £12,570, basic rate 20% to £50,270, higher 40% to £125,140 and additional 45% above, with the allowance tapering between £100,000 and £125,140 (an effective 60% band). Class 4 National Insurance is 6% between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2%, with Class 2 settled through Self Assessment. Scottish taxpayers use an S code with six bands (19/20/21/42/45/48%); Welsh taxpayers use a C code at rates that currently match the rest of the UK, while NIC stays UK-wide.

Key reliefs to make sure your return captures: the £1,000 trading allowance (if expenses are below this, claim the allowance instead); the VAT registration threshold of £90,000 on a rolling 12-month basis; the £500 dividend allowance with rates of 8.75/33.75/39.35%; and for landlords, mortgage-interest relief restricted to a 20% tax credit on SA105 (note the Furnished Holiday Lettings regime was abolished from April 2025). If you have multiple income streams, model them together with the multiple-income calculator, and landlords can sanity-check property numbers with the rental income calculator. With Record OS the accountant handles these reliefs for you; with TapTax you keep them captured as you go, so nothing is reconstructed from memory in January.

If you work in construction under CIS, contractors deduct 20% from registered subcontractors (30% if unregistered) on labour, which usually leaves subcontractors due a refund through Self Assessment. Record OS reflects that within the prepared annual return; TapTax tracks the deductions as you go so the refund position is visible before year-end.

Who should choose which

If you want a qualified accountant to handle a complex return once a year

Record OS. Multiple income types, capital gains, foreign income, crypto or expat circumstances are exactly its sweet spot, and a fixed per-return fee with professional sign-off is hard to beat for an unusually complex year.

If you are a sole trader heading into mandatory MTD over £50,000

TapTax. From April 2026 you need quarterly updates, not one annual return. TapTax's free tier lets you connect your bank and test the full flow before paying, then Starter at £4.99 a month keeps you automated and submission-ready every quarter.

If you want continuous, low-cost bookkeeping all year

TapTax. Open-banking import, AI categorisation, receipts and mileage mean there is no annual document pile-up to assemble. You trade a small monthly fee for records that are always up to date.

If you file once a year and would rather not touch the return at all

Record OS. If self-filing holds no appeal and you want the outcome delivered, paying per return for an accountant-prepared filing is a clean, reassuring option.

The bottom line

Record OS and TapTax are not really rivals so much as answers to different questions. Record OS asks: what if a qualified accountant prepared and filed your annual return at a fraction of the usual fee, especially when it is complex? It answers that well, and for multi-income or specialist returns it is a strong, lower-cost alternative to a traditional practice.

TapTax asks: what if your books maintained themselves all year and quarterly MTD filing took one tap? For automated, continuous bookkeeping and a quarterly-native MTD workflow as the rules tighten through 2026 to 2028, TapTax is the sharper everyday tool, with a free tier so you can judge it against your own numbers before spending a penny. Many sole traders will run TapTax day-to-day and reserve a done-for-you service like Record OS only for an unusually complicated year.

People also ask

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