Beyond MTD: Helping UK Practices do more with Zoho

Before we begin  

Fair warning: This is a long one. Pop the kettle on, grab a cuppa (cookies optional, but highly recommended) and settle in. We'll wait.

The UK remains a key market for Zoho, and championing MTD for Income Tax has brought us closer to the businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers we serve. With MTD for Income Tax going live in April 2026, the past year has been a big adjustment for practising firms and their sole trader and landlord clients across the UK.

Throughout, we have received overwhelming support and insights from both the larger industry and the profession, so thank you! Your feedback through the transition has shaped both Zoho Books and Zoho Practice, and one thing has become clear: Compliance alone isn't enough.

Firms also need visibility and control across their clients, services, deadlines, and day-to-day work, without juggling multiple systems. So alongside strengthening Zoho Books for sole traders and landlords, we've been expanding Zoho Practice to help UK firms manage it all from one place, for free.

So, what's new in the second half of 2026? Quite a lot, actually. Let's get into it.

Zoho Practice is now free for UK practices  

Following the MTD for Income Tax capabilities added to Zoho Practice earlier this year, UK practices were upgraded in September 2026 to end-to-end practice management, bookkeeping, and tax and compliance in Zoho Practice for free.

We also announced discounted pricing for Zoho Books licences for Practices' clients, along with an easy way to migrate. And don't forget, Zoho Books has been offering a free plan from the time of launch for over a decade. We now offer an exclusive free MTD for Income Tax plan for sole traders and landlords as of last year.

What's new in Zoho Practice  

Streamlined client onboarding: From setup to service management  

Adding a new client to Zoho Practice is now quicker. The new Companies House integration fills in key details automatically, such as the company name, registration number, incorporation date, and registered address.

Next, assign services from a predefined list. Zoho Practice creates the related tasks for you, including recurring ones. Built-in templates give you a starting point, and you can customise any task to suit your firm, whether you offer full bookkeeping, filing only, or a mix.

Letter of Engagement

You can now create, send, and track engagement letters without leaving Zoho Practice. Customisable email and PDF templates help you get started, and you can tailor them to your firm's services, terms, and tone. Once a letter is sent, you can follow its status and let clients sign digitally through Zoho Sign* or the Zoho Practice Client Portal.

*Please note relevant charges may apply for add-on features and products.

Tax filing and compliance: Manage client filings from one place  

Accountants and bookkeepers can now file the following for their clients directly from Zoho Practice:

• Self-Assessment (SA100)

• MTD for Income Tax quarterly updates and year-end submissions

• MTD for VAT returns

• CT600 returns

• Final accounts

Wherever your clients keep their records, the filing happens in Zoho Practice. Clients might work in Zoho Books, use third-party software connected through Zoho Ledger, or simply share their documents with you through the Zoho Practice Client Portal.

A refreshed interface and a new Filing and Compliance dashboard give you one view of every client's obligations. You can track upcoming deadlines, check which filings are complete or outstanding, and see where information is still needed to move a filing forward.

Note: Zoho Practice and all its features are free in the UK. Your clients' Zoho Books or Zoho Ledger licences are charged separately, though MTD for Income Tax clients can use the free Zoho Books plan.

Self-Assessment, ready for 31 January  

With the 31 January 2027 deadline for 2025 to 2026 Self-Assessment returns just around the corner, we've released Self-Assessment (SA100) filing capabilities.

Everyone files their 2025 to 2026 return the usual way, including those now under MTD for Income Tax, because MTD began with the 2026 to 2027 tax year. So sole traders, landlords, limited company directors, and the practices that support them can get returns done well ahead of the deadline, from the same place they manage everything else.

Foreign property in Zoho Books  

Practices with landlord clients who earn overseas rental income have been waiting for this one. Foreign property support is now live in Zoho Books, so practices and their landlord clients can keep UK and foreign property records in one place and stay compliant with MTD for Income Tax.

Why this matters for practices and landlords  

Under MTD for Income Tax, qualifying income includes gross sole trader income and rental income from overseas property as well as UK property.

• All UK properties are treated as a single UK property business.

• All foreign properties are treated as a single foreign property business.

• A quarterly update is submitted for each business, but there is still only one tax return per tax year, bringing together UK property, foreign property and any other income.

How it works in Zoho Books  

Manage foreign property

Set up foreign property businesses in Zoho Books and link them to the details held with HMRC. You can add, cease, or rename foreign properties on HMRC's records directly from Zoho Books. Rental income and expenses are tracked against the right property from the start, with no manual re-sorting at the quarter's end.

Clean separation of income streams

UK and foreign properties sit side by side in the same organisation, with transactions categorised to the correct property. Foreign properties are grouped by country, making it easy for your books of accounts, and it reflects the same in your returns.

One quarterly update for all foreign properties

Fetch obligations, review the figures, and submit one quarterly update covering all your foreign properties directly to HMRC from Zoho Books. Please note that the income and expenses are reported separately for each foreign property unlike UK property.

One workflow through to the tax return

After the quarterly updates, you can complete end-of-year reporting and submit the tax return for your clients without moving to another tool.

Pricing  

And the best part? It's all free. On the Zoho Books free plan, you can set up both UK and Foreign property capabilities for free.

Automatic conversion of foreign rental income into pounds sterling is available from the Professional plan up.

MTD on the go: Zoho Books mobile updates  

These mobile updates roll out on Android today, with iOS coming soon.

MTD for Income Tax: Quarterly updates in the palm of your hand  

You can now manage MTD for Income Tax quarterly updates from the Zoho Books mobile app. Fetch your obligations, review income and expenses, map accounts, and submit updates to HMRC, all without switching to the web app.

All you need is MTD for Income Tax enabled for your organisation and an active connection with HMRC.

The Property module, now on mobile  

The new Property module brings all your property information and transactions together in one place on the Zoho Books mobile app. You can add and manage properties, track activity, and create transactions on the go. Please note that this capability does not support foreign properties yet.

Rental income  

You can now record rental income against each property. Each transaction is linked to a specific property and can include multiple income items, making it easier to keep track of rental earnings.

A refreshed dashboard for sole traders and landlords  

Alongside these features, we've introduced a refreshed dashboard for sole traders and landlords on our mobile app. The redesigned dashboard offers a cleaner interface and a more streamlined view of the financial information that matters, so it's easier to get an overview of your business at a glance.

Zoho Payroll is here for UK businesses  

Zoho Payroll just launched in the UK, so businesses can now run payroll alongside their accounts. Accountants and bookkeepers can use it, too, to manage payroll for their clients through a dedicated role. This is just the start: more major payroll updates are on the way, so watch this space.

Bridging Capability in Zoho Books

For all those who are more comfortable with spreadsheets, we also have introduced the bridging capability in Zoho Books, where businesses can now import their spreadsheets used to manage their books of accounts, in the given template and file their returns directly to HMRC. The same import feature is also available for practices on Zoho Practice, where the accountant or bookkeeper can leverage the option to import their clients' sheet of accounts in the Zoho preferred template and file them, where the client may not have to be a Zoho Books user.

That's a wrap  

MTD for Income Tax has been an important part of our journey in the UK, but our ambitions for the UK finance profession go well beyond compliance. We want to help firms simplify their operations, gain better visibility across their clients, deliver services more efficiently, and build stronger, more scalable practices. We'll keep crafting Zoho Finance solutions around the feedback and needs of the UK finance fraternity.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Keep the feedback coming; we're listening, and there's plenty more to come.

If you've made it this far, we hope your tea is still warm. Time for another cookie, perhaps?