Quick answer
Self-employed food traders count their total takings, cash and card, towards the MTD threshold. Cash-heavy businesses need to get daily takings into digital records. Pitch fees, ingredients and packaging are expenses.
Key facts
All takings count, cash and card, before costs
Daily cash takings must go into digital records
Pitch fees, ingredients and packaging are expenses
VAT is separate, and only applies over £90,000
When MTD applies
Start date | Qualifying income over | Based on your tax return for |
|---|---|---|
6 April 2026 | £50,000 | 2024/25 |
6 April 2027 | £30,000 | 2025/26 |
6 April 2028 | £20,000 | 2026/27 |
A street food van taking £900 a weekend across 40 weekends, plus £8,000 of private catering, turns over £44,000. That’s over £30,000, even though ingredients and pitch fees might take half of it.
Cash takings
Card reader payouts are easy to track with a bank feed. Cash is not. Record your cash takings at the end of each trading day, in your software or a linked spreadsheet. See digital records for MTD.
Card reader payouts
Card providers usually pay out the takings minus their fee. Record the full sales figure as income and the fee as an expense, so your turnover isn’t understated.
Expenses
Ingredients and stock
Packaging and disposables
Pitch, event and market fees
Gas, generator fuel and equipment
Food hygiene training and licences
VAT
MTD for Income Tax doesn’t make you register for VAT. If your turnover goes over £90,000, VAT rules for food apply: hot takeaway food is standard rated, while most cold takeaway food is zero rated with exceptions such as crisps, sweets and soft drinks. See MTD for VAT vs Income Tax.
Use the MTD checker to see your own start date.