Which UK Banks Make Making Tax Digital Easy? 35 Banks Checked

Last checked: 24 October 2026, from public bank and GOV.UK pages. This is not tax advice. HMRC does not require a CSV file from a bank, and every sole trader's situation is different. Check GOV.UK or speak to an accountant before deciding how to keep records.

Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax asks sole traders and landlords to keep their income and expenses as digital records and send HMRC quarterly updates from compatible software. For most people, the raw material for those records is their bank account.

So DocFig checked what 41 UK banks, building societies and e-money accounts publicly say about getting transactions out: which file formats, how far back, and whether they connect to accounting software. The short answer: it depends heavily on the bank, and most banks do not say.

Key findings

• 15 of 35 banks (43%) do not state anywhere on their public pages that transactions can be downloaded as CSV or Excel. They include Barclays, Nationwide, Metro Bank, TSB and first direct.
• Only 12 of 35 say how far back a transaction download goes.
• Only 6 of 35 publicly offer a machine-readable download covering 5 years or more, the minimum period HMRC asks MTD users to keep digital records for after each 31 January deadline: NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank, Coutts, Zempler Bank and Revolut Business.
• At Starling, HSBC UK, Nationwide, first direct and Zopa, older history is published as PDF only. Starling's help page, rewritten after an August 2026 change, limits CSV exports to the last 12 months.
• None of the 35 banks says whether its PDF statements are real text or scanned images.

Across all 35 banks, 197 of 408 applicable facts (48%) were not stated on any public page.

Who Making Tax Digital for Income Tax affects, and when

HMRC decides based on "qualifying income": gross income from self-employment and property, before expenses. According to GOV.UK:

HMRC's estimates have moved over time. In April 2025 it expected 970,000 to join in April 2027; in October 2026 it said around 1,077,000, based on 2024 to 2025 Self Assessment returns. For the £20,000 step, a March 2025 technical note said 900,000 and the later impact assessment says approximately 970,000.

By 12 August 2026, more than 436,000 sole traders and landlords had sent their first quarterly update and over 570,000 had signed up, HMRC said. There is no penalty for late quarterly updates in the 2026 to 2027 tax year. Quarterly update deadlines are 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May (GOV.UK).

What HMRC says about bank statements, spreadsheets and digital links

From HMRC's guidance on creating digital records and choosing software:

• A digital record is "a record of your income or expense that is created and stored using software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax."
• Software can create records by "linking to your business bank account to import transactions automatically", by scanning receipts, or by "manually entering your income and expenses". Spreadsheets can be used with bridging software.
• If records move between products, they must be digitally linked. HMRC lists "XML, CSV importing and exporting, and downloading and uploading files" as one way. Once a record has been sent in a quarterly update, HMRC says it must not be moved by "cut and paste" or "copy and paste".
• On bank feeds, HMRC warns: "Some transactions may not appear in full in your bank feed and will need to be created separately as a digital record in your software."
• Original records still matter: "You still need to keep original records or supporting documents (or copies of them) that you have used to prepare your tax return, such as bank statements and invoices."
• Digital records must be kept "for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline for a tax year" (GOV.UK).

That is why the export question matters. A bank that offers a clean CSV, or a feed into accounting software, saves typing. A bank that only offers PDFs leaves the sole trader to retype or convert.

The ranking: 35 banks

The score measures what each bank publicly documents, out of 10. It rewards a stated CSV or Excel download (3 points), a choice of machine-readable formats (1), a stated download history of 2 years or more (3), a documented link to accounting software (2) and PDF statements kept online for 5 years or more (1). Personal and business accounts are scored separately and the higher score counts. Anything not stated publicly scores 0, so a low score means "not documented", not "impossible". Four banks could not be checked and have no score.

Download the data (CSV)

Notes: "not stated" means the bank's public pages do not say, not that the feature is missing. PDF statements are offered by almost every bank and are left out of the format columns unless they are the only format stated. Triodos's Xero link is for existing business customers only, since its business account is closed to new applicants. Nationwide's business banking is provided through Virgin Money. Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and AIB (NI) are not ranked because their websites refused automated access on the day of checking; they have no score, which is not the same as a score of 0.

What else stood out

• Business accounts are documented better than personal ones. The average business account scored 4.9 out of 10 against 2.7 for personal accounts, partly because accounting feeds are mostly offered on business accounts. Landlords who run lettings through a personal account get the least information.
• Accounting feeds do not reach far back. 22 of 35 banks say they connect to accounting software, but Metro Bank and Cumberland Building Society say transactions from before the feed started are not sent, and Triodos and Unity Trust Bank cap the backfill at 12 months.
• Copy statements cost money. Where a fee is published, a copy statement costs £2.50 to £8: The Co-operative Bank £2.50, Coutts and Danske Bank £3, Metro Bank, NatWest (business), Virgin Money and Card One Money £5, Unity Trust Bank £8. 24 of 35 banks publish no figure.
• 14 of 35 banks publish their own MTD guidance. Starling and Monzo also promote free MTD software for business customers.

What to do if your bank only gives you PDFs

Sending the next quarterly update? See the 7 November 2026 update, step by step.

1. Check inside online banking first. Many banks offer more than their help pages say. Look for "export", "download transactions", "CSV", "QIF" or "OFX" on the transactions screen on a desktop browser, which often has more options than the app.
2. Connect a bank feed in MTD software going forward, if your bank supports one, and check what it imports. HMRC says feeds may not include every transaction in full.
3. Download PDF statements now for the periods you need, before they drop out of the bank's online archive (36 months at Nationwide, 12 months of official statements at Virgin Money personal). Copies by post can cost £2.50 to £8 each.
4. Turn the PDFs into a spreadsheet for the months the bank will not export. Retyping works but is slow and error-prone. A converter tool can do it: the DocFig bank statement converter turns PDF bank statements, including scans and photos, into Excel or CSV and checks each row against the statement balances. Check any converted file against the statement before importing it.
5. Import the file into your MTD software or bridging spreadsheet using its import function, so the record is created digitally rather than copied and pasted.

Methodology and limitations

• Selection. 41 UK banks, building societies and e-money accounts that sole traders and landlords commonly use: the high-street groups and their brands, Northern Ireland banks, app banks (Monzo, Starling, Revolut, Chase UK, Kroo, Zopa), business-account specialists (Tide, Mettle, Countingup, ANNA Money, Zempler, Wise, Airwallex and others) and the building societies that offer current accounts (Nationwide, Cumberland). Cahoot (savings only) and Allica Bank (incorporated businesses only) were excluded. Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and AIB (NI) could not be checked. 35 were ranked.
• Sources. Only the banks' own public pages: help centres, FAQs, product pages, fee tariffs and official app store listings. No logins, no contact with banks. Third-party sites were used only to find official pages.
• Evidence. For every fact, the source URL, the exact sentence and the date checked (24 October 2026) were recorded, and the page text was saved. Every quote was machine-checked against the saved page. Where no public page stated a fact, the cell says "not stated publicly" with a list of what was checked. The three business statement fees read from tariff PDFs (Virgin Money, Metro Bank, Danske Bank) were re-checked against the PDFs' table layout before publishing.
• Fetching. robots.txt was respected and requests to each site were spaced at least 6 seconds apart. Pages that refused automated access were not worked around.
• Data. Download the data (CSV): one row per bank, with the source URL and check date for every field. Licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse it freely, crediting DocFig with a link to this page.

Limitations:

• Public documentation only. A bank may offer more once you log in.
• Four large brands (Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, AIB (NI)) are missing because their sites blocked the automated checks. Some Revolut pages were also blocked.
• Some pages may have been missed: a "not stated publicly" means not found on the bank's public site after a search, not proof that no page exists.
• For NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank, the 7-year figure is how far back transactions can be searched, and search results can be exported to Excel. For HSBC UK personal accounts, 12 months is the midata download; the range of its Excel or CSV transaction list is not stated.
• Monzo, Wise and Revolut personal let customers pick a date range but do not say how far back it can go, so they score 0 for history.
• Bank pages change. Starling's statement rules changed in August 2026.
• Not tax advice.

More DocFig data: the EU e-invoicing mandates tracker, and all studies and data. Spotted an error or a bank page that says more? Send it with the link through the contact page.

Questions

Do I need a CSV from my bank for Making Tax Digital?

No. HMRC asks for digital records kept in MTD-compatible software. They can come from a bank feed, an imported file or manual entry. A CSV or Excel download simply makes importing easier.

Can I copy and paste bank transactions into a spreadsheet for MTD?

HMRC's guidance says that once a digital record has been sent to HMRC in a quarterly update, it must not be moved by "cut and paste" or "copy and paste". Importing a file (for example a CSV) counts as a digital link.

Is a bank feed enough?

Often it helps, but HMRC says "Some transactions may not appear in full in your bank feed", and you may need to add detail such as the Self Assessment category. Several banks also say feeds do not send transactions from before the feed was connected.

How long should I keep bank statements under MTD?

HMRC says digital records must be kept for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline for the tax year, and original records such as bank statements must still be kept.

Which UK banks let you export transactions as CSV?

Of the 35 banks ranked, 20 state a CSV or Excel download for at least one account type, including NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank, Revolut, Monzo, Starling, HSBC UK, Santander UK, Wise, Tide, Mettle, Coutts, Chase UK, Danske Bank, Virgin Money (business), The Co-operative Bank (business), Unity Trust Bank, Zempler Bank, Countingup and Monese. See the table for formats and limits.

When does MTD for Income Tax apply to me?

From 6 April 2026 if your qualifying income was over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025, from 6 April 2027 if over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026, and from 6 April 2028 if over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027. Check GOV.UK for exemptions.

What if my bank only offers PDF statements?

Download the statements you need while they are still online, then either type the transactions into your software or convert the PDFs to a spreadsheet and import the file. Check the result against the statement totals.

Data checked 24 October 2026 by DocFig from public bank and GOV.UK pages. This page is general information, not tax or financial advice.