If you came into Making Tax Digital for Income Tax this April, the quarterly updates have started. The first was due by 7 August 2026 and the second is due by 7 November 2026. For a lot of sole traders and landlords this is the first time they have ever sent HMRC anything outside January. Here is what you need to know.
Who does this apply to?
You are in the first wave of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax if your combined gross income from self-employment and property was over £50,000. If that is you, you should already be keeping digital records in compatible software, and the quarterly update is simply the first report from those records.
Not sure whether you are caught? Our plain-English guide to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax walks through the thresholds and the timetable.
What is actually due, and when?
The first update covered 6 April to 5 July 2026 and was due by 7 August 2026. The second covers 6 April to 5 October 2026 and is due by 7 November 2026. If you chose calendar quarters in your software, those periods run 1 April to 30 June and 1 April to 30 September instead, and the deadlines are exactly the same. Two more follow, on 7 February 2027 and 7 May 2027.
The update itself is lighter than people fear. HMRC does not want your invoices or receipts, just the totals of your income and expenses for the year so far, sent from your software. It is not a tax return, there is no tax to pay with it, and you do not finalise anything until after the year end.
Two details worth knowing:
- You must send an update for each business. If you have a self-employment and a rental property, that is one update for each, even if one of them had no income or expenses in the quarter. A nil update still has to be sent.
- Updates are cumulative. Each one reports the year to date, so if you spot a mistake after sending one, you can simply correct it in the next update. No drama.
What if you miss it?
Here is some genuinely good news. HMRC has confirmed it will not charge penalty points for late quarterly updates during the 2026 to 2027 tax year, so a late update will not cost you anything this year. Treat this year as the practice lap. Penalties for late tax returns and late payment still apply as normal.
Do not treat it as optional, though. The penalty system is coming, and the whole point of quarterly updates is that your records stay current all year. If sending the update is a scramble, that is a sign the bookkeeping behind it needs attention now, while a slip is still free.
How to make it a non-event
The clients who will not notice this deadline are the ones whose records are already flowing into software as they go. That is the whole game:
- Digital records in place. We set clients up on Xero, ready for Making Tax Digital from day one.
- Receipts captured as you go. With a tool like Dext, paperwork is dealt with in seconds, not in a quarterly panic.
- We file the updates. We prepare and submit every quarterly update and the final declaration, and tell you where you stand each quarter.
A deadline every quarter sounds like more work. Handled properly, it is the opposite: no January mountain, no surprises, and a running picture of your tax as the year unfolds.
If the next quarterly update is looming and you would rather never think about it again, we will take it from here, from £62.50 a month. Get your instant quote and see your fixed monthly fee in under a minute.