TapTax vs Self Assessment Direct
Free with no conditions attached
Self Assessment Direct is £0 with no tiers, no caps and no expiry date, which is the rarest pricing shape in the whole directory. It is also one of only three products HMRC data leaves standing in the free, mobile, digital-records, all-sources quadrant. One of those three flags is worth checking yourself.
Estimate your self-employed tax in seconds
See what you would owe for the year, then file the real figures with TapTax in a couple of taps.
Total turnover before expenses
Under £1,000 we use the trading allowance automatically
Estimated tax bill
£6,872
15.3% effective rate for 2026/27
- Income tax
- £5,286
- Class 4 NI
- £1,586
Take-home pay
£32,128
after tax, NI and expenses
This is an estimate using HMRC-confirmed rates for 2026/27, not your official tax calculation. TapTax is MTD-compatible, so you can connect to HMRC and file the real figures in a couple of taps.
Read enough MTD pricing pages and you develop a reflex: find the condition. There is almost always one. One property. Thirty invoices. One automated business. A funded bank account. Free until March 2028.
Self Assessment Direct does not appear to have one. Our pricing research in August 2026 found £0 with no tiers, no caps, no card and no end date, covering self-employment, UK property and foreign property. HMRC grades it ready on native record-keeping, bridging, agent software, HMRC Assist, calendar update periods and all three income sources, with 9 of the 16 tax-return items ready.
There is one flag on its listing worth checking yourself before you decide, and it happens to be the flag that puts it into the small group of products standing closest to TapTax.
- Self Assessment Direct is £0 with no tiers, no caps and no expiry, as checked in August 2026. That is the rarest pricing shape on the directory.
- HMRC grades it ready on 9 of the 16 tax-return items, with 6 more in development and partnership income not included.
- Its listing declares both mobile platforms while recording the software type as web browser, and our own August 2026 research found it web only. Verify that one yourself.
- It is graded ready on all three income sources including foreign property, plus bridging, agent software, HMRC Assist and calendar quarters.
- TapTax ships native iOS and Android apps with open banking and AI categorisation, is MTD-compatible and going through HMRC's recognition process, and is behind at roughly six to eight of 16 return items.
How HMRC's own directory grades it
HMRC publishes a feature grid for every listed product using its own three-state scale of ready now, in development, or not included. We scraped all 127 listings on 9 August 2026.
Self Assessment Direct
£0(checked August 2026)
- Free version: yes
- Android; Apple iOS: yes
- Sole trader income: yes
- UK property income: yes
- Foreign property income: yes
- Keeps digital records: yes
9/16 tax-return items ready, 6 more in development.
HMRC MTD for Income Tax directory, scraped 9 August 2026. Feature flags are vendor-declared. Vendor site
Unconditionally free as researched in August 2026: no tiers, no caps, no expiry. The listing declares both mobile platforms while recording the software type as web browser, and our own research found it web only.
HMRC lists what each vendor declares. Feature flags, mobile-app support in particular, are vendor claims rather than verified facts, and listings change. Check with the vendor before you buy. Data: HMRC find-MTD-software service (tax.service.gov.uk), scraped 9 August 2026.
The quadrant, and the flag worth checking
Take HMRC's own grades and apply the four filters that matter to someone who wants to file from a phone without paying: a free version, apps on both stores, native digital record-keeping rather than bridging alone, and all three business income sources. Run all 127 products through it and this is what survives.
3of 127 (2%)are free, on both app stores, keep digital records and cover all three income sourcesHMRC MTD for Income Tax directory, scraped 9 August 2026| Product | Free | Sole trader | UK property | Foreign property | Mobile app | Return items |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIY Tax | Ready now | Ready now | Ready now | Ready now | Android; Apple iOS | 3/16 |
| Self Assessment Direct | Ready now | Ready now | Ready now | Ready now | Android; Apple iOS | 9/16 |
| RentalBux Free | Ready now | Ready now | Ready now | Ready now | Android; Apple iOS | 15/16 |
That is the exact space TapTax was built for, so these three are its closest structural neighbours. Two of them carry a visible condition: DIY Tax's free edition is capped hard at one business or property with 30 invoices and expenses, and RentalBux Free is one property and described as free until March 2028. Self Assessment Direct carries no condition we could find.
It carries something else instead, and it is a data-quality issue rather than a commercial one. Its listing declares Android and Apple iOS while recording its software type as web browser, and its listed vendor site is a browser product. Our independent August 2026 pricing pass concluded it is web only.
That matters because mobile flags on the directory are vendor-declared. HMRC publishes what the vendor stated, not something HMRC tested. Most of the time that is fine. Here, the row disagrees with itself, so the honest reading is that Self Assessment Direct is very probably a browser product whose mobile flag should not be relied on. Everything else in its listing is unaffected, and none of this is a criticism of the product's compliance: it is a warning about a single field.
A vendor-declared flag is a claim, not a test result. When a row disagrees with itself, believe the part you can check for yourself and go and check it.
9 ready, 6 in development, and why the distinction is the whole thing
Nine of sixteen puts Self Assessment Direct well clear of the majority of the directory.
89of 127 (70%)cannot complete a single tax-return itemHMRC MTD for Income Tax directory, scraped 9 August 2026Those products can file quarterly updates and cannot complete a single return item, which means a second tool at year end for anything beyond trading or rental income. Self Assessment Direct is not one of them. What it is ready on reads as a deliberate set for its audience: UK interest, UK dividends, foreign dividends, foreign interest, Construction Industry Scheme, charitable giving, student loan, marriage allowance and voluntary Class 2 National Insurance.
The six it lists as in development are employment PAYE, state pension income, private pension income, private pension contributions, capital gains and the High Income Child Benefit Charge.
- In development (HMRC grade)
- HMRC's middle grade on the software directory. It means the vendor has told HMRC it is committed to supporting that item for the 2026-27 return but has not shipped it. It is a stated intention with a date attached, not a working feature, and it applies only to the 16 tax-return items: HMRC does not grade capabilities or income sources this way. When you compare products, count only the ready-now grades and treat in development as a reason to re-check later rather than a reason to buy now.
Read practically: if you have a job alongside your self-employment, or you draw a pension, Self Assessment Direct cannot finish your return today no matter how free it is. If your income is trade or rent plus some interest and dividends, it very likely can.
Pricing in detail, checked August 2026
| TapTax Free | TapTax Starter | TapTax Pro | Self Assessment Direct | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | £0 | £4.99/mo | £9.99/mo | £0 |
| Approx. annual cost | £0 | £49 | £99 | £0 |
| Tiers above free | Starter and Pro | Pro | None | None found |
| Caps on the free offer | Core MTD features | n/a | n/a | None found |
| Expiry date | None | n/a | n/a | None found |
| Quarterly MTD updates | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Return items ready | 6 to 8 of 16 (our estimate) | 6 to 8 of 16 (our estimate) | 6 to 8 of 16 (our estimate) | 9 of 16 (HMRC grade) |
| Return items in development | n/a | n/a | n/a | 6 (HMRC grade) |
| Sole trader income | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ready (HMRC grade) |
| UK property | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ready (HMRC grade) |
| Foreign property | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ready (HMRC grade) |
| Bridging from a spreadsheet | No, by design | No, by design | No, by design | Ready (HMRC grade) |
| Agent software | No | No | No | Ready (HMRC grade) |
| HMRC Assist | No | No | No | Ready (HMRC grade) |
| Mobile app | iOS and Android | iOS and Android | iOS and Android | Declared, not confirmed |
| Open banking import | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not listed by HMRC |
| HMRC directory status | Not listed; recognition in progress | Not listed; recognition in progress | Not listed; recognition in progress | Listed |
Self Assessment Direct pricing is from our own vendor research as checked in August 2026. Feature grades in its column are HMRC's, from the 9 August 2026 scrape. TapTax pricing is our own published pricing. The TapTax annual figures are its published annual-plan prices, £49 for Starter and £99 for Pro, rather than twelve times the monthly rate.
Both free columns are £0, so price cannot decide this and nobody should pretend it does. What decides it is the workflow and, if you have PAYE or pension income, the return items.
Where Self Assessment Direct genuinely wins
Unconditional cost, and a set of grades most paid products do not reach.
Free with no cap and no expiry is worth more than free with either, because the cost of discovering a cap is not the upgrade price, it is finding out mid-year that your records have to move. Self Assessment Direct also beats TapTax on return items today, 9 against roughly six to eight, and adds bridging, agent software and HMRC Assist, none of which TapTax offers. It is listed with HMRC now and TapTax is not.
For a landlord or sole trader whose return is business income plus interest and dividends, that is a complete answer at zero cost from a listed product, and it is a better answer than most of the market can give.
Where TapTax fits better
The phone, and only really the phone, but it decides more than people expect.
TapTax ships native apps on the App Store and Google Play, which is a fact you can verify in thirty seconds rather than a declared flag. Around them sits the part a directory cannot grade: open banking pulls transactions in as they happen, AI categorisation proposes the treatment, the camera captures receipts at the counter, and CSV import with presets for 16 UK banks covers accounts a feed does not reach. The quarterly update becomes a review of work already done.
A browser product with no bank feed makes you the import mechanism, four times a year, usually in the week the deadline lands. If your expenses arrive as paperwork you process in batches, that is fine and free is unbeatable. If they arrive as card payments while you are working, it is the reason the quarter always feels like a scramble.
On return items TapTax is behind, at roughly six to eight of 16, so check your own return against both lists rather than either headline count. Size your position first with the sole trader tax calculator or the rental income calculator, which applies the finance-cost restriction limiting mortgage interest relief to a 20% credit.
Who should choose which
Wants free with genuinely no conditions. Self Assessment Direct. No cap, no expiry, listed today, and ahead of TapTax on return items.
Has employment income or a pension alongside self-employment. Neither is a clean answer. Those items are in development at Self Assessment Direct and TapTax is at six to eight of 16. Look at the 15-of-16 and 16-of-16 cohort instead, starting with our analysis of all 127 listed tools.
Has an overseas rental. Either works, which already rules out most of the market. Self Assessment Direct adds foreign dividends and foreign interest as ready return items, which is a strong package for international income.
Wants an accountant working in the same system. Self Assessment Direct is graded ready on agent software. TapTax is not.
Keeps records in a spreadsheet. Self Assessment Direct, which offers bridging. TapTax does not do bridging by design.
Wants a real, installed app. TapTax, and verify the app stores yourself rather than trusting any directory flag, ours or anyone else's.
Must file a live submission this week. Self Assessment Direct, or another listed product. TapTax's recognition is in progress and we will not tell you otherwise.
The bottom line
Self Assessment Direct is one of the cleanest offers on HMRC's directory: free with nothing attached, listed today, ready on all three income sources and on 9 of the 16 return items, with bridging, agent access and HMRC Assist on top. If your return is business income plus interest and dividends and you are happy in a browser, it is a complete answer for nothing.
TapTax is for the same person doing the same job from a phone, with the bank feed and the categorisation removing the data entry rather than scheduling it. On return items we are behind, and TapTax is MTD-compatible and going through HMRC's recognition process rather than listed.
Whichever way you go, check the mobile flag yourself. It is the one field in this comparison that the data cannot settle, and it is exactly the field a competitor roundup would repeat without looking.
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