TapTax vs SumUp Invoices
Free invoices from a payments company, or invoices inside your tax app

SumUp is a card payments company. Its invoicing is free because it brings you closer to SumUp's card readers, business account and payment processing, which is where SumUp earns its money. TapTax is a tax app for sole traders and landlords that now sends invoices too, because the invoice is where your income starts.

That difference in business model explains almost every row in the comparison below. SumUp is generous where payments are involved and thin where tax is involved. TapTax is the other way round.

What each product is for

SumUp Invoices sits inside SumUp's payments ecosystem. Its own pricing page, checked on 7 October 2026, sells two plans. Free costs nothing and includes unlimited invoices and quotes, recurring invoices, credit notes, delivery notes, your logo, automatic payment reminders and an export for your accountant. Invoices Plus costs £7 a month plus VAT, billed annually, and adds payment to any bank, payment in any currency, full design customisation, 14 invoice languages and automatic reconciliation with most banks.

TapTax starts from the other end. It keeps your income and expense records, reads your receipts and supplier bills, estimates your tax and sends your Making Tax Digital quarterly updates to HMRC. Invoicing joined that in September 2026: six templates in your own colours, saved clients with their payment terms, a rate card of the jobs you do, repeating invoices and reminders that chase late payers. You can see the whole flow on the invoicing feature page.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

HMRC's requirement, from 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, to keep digital records and send quarterly updates through compatible software.

Side by side

Sources: SumUp Invoices pricing, SumUp Making Tax Digital and HMRC's find software service, all checked 7 October 2026.

How you get paid is the real decision

If your clients pay by card, SumUp is built for you. A SumUp invoice carries a pay button that takes cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and the money lands in SumUp. The fee, per SumUp's own FAQ on 7 October 2026, is 2.5% of the invoice. On a £400 invoice that is £10.

TapTax invoices do not take cards. They carry your bank details, your client pays by transfer, and nothing is deducted. For a trade or a consultant whose clients are businesses paying from their own banking, that is usually how the money arrives anyway. For someone whose clients are members of the public who want to tap a card on their phone, it is a genuine gap.

There is a catch on SumUp's Free plan worth knowing before you choose it. Bank transfers on the Free plan go only into a SumUp Business Account. If you want clients to pay by transfer into the account you already bank with, you need Invoices Plus at £7 a month plus VAT.

Chasing late payers

Both products send reminders for you, which is the single most useful invoicing feature for a sole trader. TapTax sends them before the due date, on it and after it, and you choose which.

TapTax goes one step further for business clients. Under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, a business that pays you late owes statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, plus fixed compensation of £40 on a debt under £1,000, £70 up to £9,999.99 and £100 from £10,000. TapTax can add both to the reminders it sends, if you switch it on. You can work out what you are owed with the late payment interest calculator. SumUp's invoice and pricing pages did not mention late-payment interest when we checked.

The tax side

This is where the two products separate.

SumUp offers MTD for Income Tax free, built with embedded accounting technology from Sage, and HMRC lists it as SumUp Accounting. When we read that listing on 7 October 2026, HMRC graded it ready for sole trader income and not included for UK property or foreign property. It was listed for use in a web browser.

SumUp Accounting

£0(checked 7 October 2026)

• Free version: yes
• No mobile app listed: no
• Sole trader income: yes
• UK property income: no
• Foreign property income: no
• Keeps digital records: yes

0/16 tax-return items ready, 9 more in development.

HMRC MTD for Income Tax directory, scraped 2 October 2026. Feature flags are vendor-declared. Vendor site

Free MTD for Income Tax for sole trader income, built on Sage technology. Not graded for UK or foreign property income.

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 2 October 2026.

TapTax covers sole trader income on every plan and UK and overseas property income on Pro, from the TapTax phone app as well as the web. It also does the part of record keeping that takes the most time: it reads your receipts and supplier bills, checks that net plus VAT makes the total and that the VAT rate is a UK one, remembers your suppliers and matches each document to the payment on your bank statement. Your income reaches your quarterly figures from the payment, not from the invoice, so a paid invoice is never counted twice.

TapTax is HMRC-recognised, with its directory listing pending. SumUp Accounting is on HMRC's find-software service today. If being on that list now is a hard requirement, that settles it.

What it costs over a year

For a sole trader sending around ten invoices a month to business clients who pay by transfer:

• SumUp Free: £0, if you are happy to have transfers paid into a SumUp Business Account. Card payments cost 2.5% each.
• SumUp Invoices Plus: £84 plus VAT a year, £100.80 including VAT, to be paid into your own bank.
• TapTax Starter: £49 a year on the annual plan, or £4.99 a month, with unlimited invoices, 50 receipt and bill reads a month and every quarterly update.

If you take card payments, add 2.5% of what clients pay by card to SumUp's figure.

Where SumUp genuinely wins

SumUp wins on price for invoicing alone: unlimited invoices for nothing is hard to beat. It wins on card payments, which TapTax does not take at all. And it includes quotes, credit notes and delivery notes inside the product, where TapTax offers quotes, credit notes and pro formas as free web generators, not saved in your account.

If you are a sole trader with no rental income who already uses a SumUp card reader, SumUp's free invoicing and free MTD filing together are a strong, low-cost set-up.

Where TapTax fits better

TapTax fits better if you have rental income alongside your trade, because SumUp's MTD listing does not cover property. It fits better if you want your invoices, receipts, bills and quarterly updates in one app on your phone, with the bookkeeping done by reading your documents rather than typing them. And it fits better if late payment from business clients is a real cost to you, because statutory interest is money you are owed and most sole traders never claim it.

Who should choose which

A mobile hairdresser or market trader paid mostly by card

SumUp. You probably already use its card reader, card payments on invoices are built in, and free MTD for sole trader income covers your filing.

An electrician invoicing letting agents and builders on 30-day terms

TapTax. Business clients pay by transfer, the Trades template and rate card make the invoice quick, and statutory interest on the reminders is a real lever on slow payers. Start with the electrician invoice template if you want to see the layout first.

A consultant with a buy-to-let flat

TapTax Pro. SumUp's MTD listing does not cover UK property income, and TapTax files both from the same records.

The bottom line

“SumUp gives away invoicing to sell payments. TapTax gives you invoicing to keep your tax straight. Pick the one built around the thing you actually need.”

SumUp Invoices is the better free invoice tool if your clients pay by card and your only income is your trade. TapTax is the better choice when invoicing is part of running your tax, with receipts read for you, statutory interest on late business payers and property income filed from the same app.

People also ask

How much does SumUp charge to take a card payment on an invoice?

SumUp’s invoice FAQ gave 2.5% per card payment when we checked on 7 October 2026, with no fee for bank transfers or cash. Apple Pay and Google Pay are accepted.

Do I need a SumUp Business Account to use SumUp Invoices?

Not to send invoices. On the Free plan, though, bank-transfer payments go only into a SumUp Business Account; paying into another bank needs Invoices Plus at £7 a month plus VAT, billed annually.

Can I use SumUp for card payments and TapTax for my tax?

Yes. Export your SumUp payouts or your bank statement as CSV and import it into TapTax, which categorises the income and expenses and files your quarterly updates. Your invoices can stay in SumUp.

Does TapTax charge a fee when a client pays an invoice?

No. TapTax invoices are paid by bank transfer straight to you, so nothing is deducted. Unlimited invoicing is included on Starter at £4.99 a month, and the free plan includes three invoices.