Where Should Your Practice Move Now BTCSoftware Is Leaving Tax Filing

BTCSoftware's own transition notice confirms it will stop taking Individual and Partnership tax returns after the 2025/26 tax year, and Accounts Production and Corporation Tax filing for periods ending after 31 March 2027. Existing customers get its replacement, BrightTax, at no extra charge while they transition, so staying with the same supplier costs nothing extra right now. Moving instead to TaxCalc or IRIS Elements means paying for a second, unfamiliar system on top, in exchange for an independent workflow and support relationship.

Key pointers

• BTCSoftware desktop stops accepting Individual and Partnership returns after the 2025/26 tax year, and Accounts Production or Corporation Tax work for periods ending after 31 March 2027.
• BTCSoftware's publisher gives every existing customer free access to BrightTax during the transition, with pricing only changing at the contract renewal that follows 1 April 2027.
• BrightTax and BTCSoftware share one live client database, so switching within the same supplier needs no data re-entry.
• Moving to TaxCalc or IRIS Elements instead means setting up a fresh client database and a second, paid subscription while you still hold BTCSoftware.
• For a sole practitioner with up to 5 clients, IRIS Elements Essentials (Tax Essentials plus Accounts Production Essentials) starts from £144.08 a year ex VAT. The nearest TaxCalc equivalent, for up to 12 clients and without a separate corporation tax licence, starts from £368 a year ex VAT, rising to £603 with corporation tax added.
• Clients needing the SA106 foreign or SA109 non-resident pages for 2025/26 can only file those through BrightTax, not BTCSoftware desktop.
• Practices with self-employed or landlord clients above £50,000 combined income must be filing quarterly under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026, so software choice and MTD readiness now sit on the same clock.
• Ask any vendor exactly how existing BTCSoftware client files will transfer before you commit, because none of the three publishes an automatic BTCSoftware import tool.

What The BTCSoftware Retirement Means For Your Practice

If your practice still runs BTCSoftware desktop, the clock has already started. BTCSoftware will not support the submission of year-end declarations beyond the 2025/26 tax year for Individual and Partnership returns, and Accounts Production and Corporation Tax work stops for periods ending after 31 March 2027. Trust returns are the exception, staying on BTCSoftware desktop for at least 2026/27. Your existing filings and data stay accessible either way, but you cannot keep filing new returns on the old desktop product past those dates.

The decision in front of you is not really "should I move." You have to move. The real decision is where. Staying with the same supplier, by switching to BrightTax, costs nothing extra for now because it runs on the same client database as BTCSoftware and free access is included during the transition. Moving to TaxCalc or IRIS Elements means paying for a licence you do not currently hold, on top of the BTCSoftware subscription you keep until the cut-off dates, while you set up a fresh client list and learn a different workflow.

For a small practice, this is mostly a question of how much you value staying with a familiar supplier's support team against wanting a genuinely independent second opinion on software, price and service before your BTCSoftware contract forces a decision anyway. If any of your clients need the SA106 foreign income or SA109 non-residence pages for the 2025/26 tax year, the transition notice says those schedules will only be available in BrightTax, not BTCSoftware desktop, which narrows the window for those specific clients regardless of which platform you ultimately choose.

There is also a compliance deadline running in parallel. Self-employed people and landlords with combined turnover above £50,000 in 2024/25 must file under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026, submitting quarterly digital updates instead of one annual return (HMRC). Whichever product you choose, confirm directly with the vendor, not a reseller or forum post, that it is HMRC-recognised for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax before your first affected client's quarter starts.

Pricing And Cost Of Switching

None of the three products has one simple "per practice" price. Each is priced by client band, by user, or both, so the honest way to compare them is to price the same small-practice scenario across all three.

Staying with BrightTax. Free for the length of your current BTCSoftware subscription, including data hosting and the switch itself. Pricing changes at your next contract renewal after 1 April 2027, and transitioned customers are promised "exclusive pricing" that has not been published. Budget for an unknown but likely non-zero renewal cost from 2027/28, and ask for it in writing before that renewal date.

Moving to TaxCalc. A one-user practice with up to 12 Individual and Partnership clients pays £204 a year ex VAT for Tax Return Production plus £164 a year ex VAT for Accounts Production, a combined £368 a year, per TaxCalc's pricing page. That bundle does not cover limited company clients: a separate Corporation Tax licence for up to 12 clients adds £235 a year, taking the full like-for-like total to £603 a year ex VAT. A larger practice with up to 150 clients in the Individual and Partnership and Accounts Production bands, and two users, pays £481 plus £744, a combined £1,225 a year ex VAT before corporation tax.

Moving to IRIS Elements. The Essentials tier is priced per user and banded by client count, and its Tax product already bundles Individual, Partnership and Corporation Tax returns together: £107.25 a year for Tax Essentials, which IRIS's own pricing page says covers a minimum of 5 clients and one user, and £36.83 a year for Accounts Production Essentials, which covers a minimum of 10 clients and one user, per IRIS's Tax pricing page and Accounts Production pricing page. Because Tax Essentials is the tighter of the two, the combined £144.08 a year ex VAT package is available to a practice with up to 5 clients needing both tax returns and accounts. A second user adds £116.18 a year on Tax Essentials and £125.18 a year on Accounts Production Essentials, on top of the base price, rather than being covered automatically. IRIS's published rate card also shows higher client bands at 11-30 and 31-100 clients with a higher price at each step, rising to £426 a year for Tax Essentials and £142.15 a year for Accounts Production Essentials at the 31-100 client band; beyond 100 clients IRIS asks practices to contact sales.

Assumptions

These figures use each vendor's own published, list-price rate card, checked against the live pricing pages on 29 September 2026. They exclude VAT, exclude any migration or data conversion fee a vendor may quote separately, and exclude practice management, AML checking, document management or other add-on modules that any of the three sells alongside the core tax and accounts products. Treat them as a starting comparison, not a quote for your practice; ask each vendor to price your actual client count and user headcount.

Chart 1 compares the smallest published entry-level cost for tax return production plus accounts production, one user, across all three options, using the figures above: £0 for BrightTax during the transition, £144.08 for IRIS Elements Essentials with corporation tax included, £368 for TaxCalc without corporation tax, and £603 for TaxCalc with a separate corporation tax licence added.

How BrightTax TaxCalc And IRIS Elements Compare

Staying with BrightTax suits a practice that wants the least disruption and the lowest cost between now and 2027, and does not mind an unknown renewal price further down the line. TaxCalc's client-banded pricing tends to suit a practice whose client count is comfortably inside one of its published bands and that wants a fixed annual figure per band, though it prices Corporation Tax as a separate purchase from Individual and Partnership work. IRIS Elements' bundled Tax product can undercut TaxCalc for a small, single-practitioner practice, but each additional user is billed on top of the client-banded price rather than folded into a higher band. Neither comparison is a reason to rule out BTCSoftware's own past reputation with your practice; it is a reason to get a written quote from TaxCalc and IRIS Elements before your BTCSoftware cut-off date arrives, so BrightTax is not the only option you have actually priced.

Editorial analysis

The commercial logic behind the free BrightTax offer is straightforward: BTCSoftware and BrightTax share a live database and a support team, so the path of least resistance keeps existing customers with the same supplier. That is not a criticism of BrightTax, which is built to the Making Tax Digital for Income Tax rules taking effect in April 2026. It does mean the free transition is a genuine cost advantage for staying put, not a neutral default. A principal weighing TaxCalc or IRIS Elements against that free offer should be honest about what they are actually buying with the extra cost: a second opinion on software fit, pricing and support, independent of a supplier they may already have concerns about, rather than a guaranteed improvement in features. Because neither rival publishes an automatic BTCSoftware import tool, the practical cost of switching away is not just the subscription fee, it is the staff time spent rebuilding a client database and relearning a workflow before the next filing deadline.

Sources

• BTCSoftware to BrightTax FAQS
• Accounting and tax software pricing, TaxCalc
• Tax Accounting Software, IRIS Elements
• Accounts Production Software, IRIS Elements
• Sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, HMRC