“HMRC approved” software does not exist. Here is how to actually check.

“HMRC approved” is a phrase HMRC never uses for software

Look across the vendor market and you will see “HMRC approved” on landing pages, badges and ads. It is worth knowing that HMRC does not say it. Nowhere in its Making Tax Digital software guidance does the word approved appear. HMRC's word is recognised, and the distinction is not pedantry.

HMRC is explicit about the limit of what recognition means: “All software listed has been through HMRC's recognition process. HMRC does not recommend any product or software provider.” Recognition says a product cleared HMRC's process and meets its minimum functionality standards. It is not an endorsement, not a ranking, and not a promise the product suits you.

So when a vendor says “HMRC approved”, the honest translation is “HMRC recognised, which HMRC is careful to say is not a recommendation”. A shorter version: the badge is real, but it means less than it sounds.

The list you remember has gone

For years, GOV.UK published a browsable table of compatible software you could scan. On 31 July 2025 HMRC removed it. In its own words on the current guidance, “the table of software listings has been removed”. In its place is a personalised finder tool: you answer a few questions about your income, and it returns a filtered list.

This matters because it quietly changed what “check the HMRC list” means. There is no single page to bookmark and no table to scan. If someone points you at an old list, it is exactly that: old. The only current source is the finder, and it gives a different answer depending on who is asking.

What the finder actually returns

So we ran it. On 21 July 2026, answering as a self-managing landlord with UK property income, no other income or items to report, on a standard 6 April to 5 April accounting period, HMRC's finder returned this.

A hundred products is not a shortlist you can eyeball, which is rather the point of a finder. It also means “is it on the HMRC list” is a low bar: a great many products clear it. The useful questions sit on top of recognition, not inside it, and the finder gives you filters for exactly those.

How to check any product yourself, in about two minutes

The finder is at GOV.UK, free, and needs no sign-in. It opens by asking how you want to search, and gives you three routes.

1. 1

   Find software based on your answers

   Answer a few questions about your income, and it returns a personalised list. This is the landlord route we used.

2. 2

   Show all available software, then filter

   See the full recognised set and narrow it yourself. Good if you want to browse rather than be guided.

3. 3

   Check if your current software is compatible

   Search a product by name, spreadsheets included. This is the one to use when a vendor claims to be recognised: if the finder does not return it, HMRC has not recognised it.

Once you have a list, HMRC lets you filter it. These are the filters it offered on 21 July 2026, and they are a good checklist of what actually matters after recognition:

• Ready for quarterly updates and tax return
• Free version
• Software that connects to your records (bridging software)
• VAT
• HMRC Assist (Submission Feedback)
• Welsh
• Accessibility needs (separate filters for impaired vision, hearing, motor and cognitive)

The one worth dwelling on is “Ready for quarterly updates and tax return”. Recognition can cover a single end-to-end product or a set of products stitched together, including bridging software that connects to a spreadsheet. That filter is how you separate something that does the whole job from something that does part of it.

Where we stand, honestly

A fair question to put to any vendor writing this is: are you on the list? So, plainly. As at 21 July 2026, LetSort is not yet on HMRC's recognised list. We are going through HMRC's recognition process, and we will say so here on the day that changes.

We would rather tell you that than wear a badge we do not hold. It also happens to be the whole reason we can write this post with any authority: we are inside the same process every recognised product went through, which is how we know what the word does and does not mean.

Common questions

Sources

The product counts are our own, captured by running HMRC's finder on 21 July 2026 for the landlord profile described above; re-run it for today's figures. The quoted wording is from HMRC's guidance, checked the same day.

• HMRC: Choose the right software for MTD for Income Tax (the recognition wording and the removed table (last updated 13 July 2026))
• HMRC: Find software that works with MTD for Income Tax (the finder guidance (published 31 July 2025))
• HMRC: the software finder tool (the tool itself; the source of the 100 and 28 figures)

Related

• What actually happens when your software files an MTD update
• HMRC rebuilt its losses API in June, and old software will fail on 2026-27 losses