MTD for Income Tax: quarterly deadlines explained

General information, not tax advice. Not affiliated with HMRC. Every figure below is linked to the gov.uk page it comes from. Check with HMRC or a qualified accountant about your own situation.

Under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax you send HMRC a short summary every three months, then a tax return after the year ends. Here is how the calendar works.

What a quarterly update is

Your software adds up your digital records for each business to give totals for income and expenses. Those totals are the quarterly update. HMRC says these are summaries, not tax returns (gov.uk). You send one for each self-employment and property business (gov.uk), and you don't need to make accounting or tax adjustments first (gov.uk). HMRC sees category totals, not individual receipts or invoices (gov.uk).

Each update is cumulative. It covers from the start of the tax year to the end of the latest period, so you can correct earlier mistakes in the next one (gov.uk). If nothing happened in a period, you still have to send an update (gov.uk).

Standard update periods

These line up with the tax year (6 April to 5 April) and are the default in software (gov.uk):

Update period	Deadline
6 April to 5 July	7 August
6 April to 5 October	7 November
6 April to 5 January	7 February
6 April to 5 April	7 May (the following tax year)

Calendar update periods

If your accounting period runs from 1 April to 31 March, gov.uk says you should use calendar periods, because it makes record keeping simpler (gov.uk). The deadlines are the same (gov.uk):

Update period	Deadline
1 April to 30 June	7 August
1 April to 30 September	7 November
1 April to 31 December	7 February
1 April to 31 March	7 May (the following tax year)

Choose carefully: software starts on standard periods. To switch to calendar periods, you must change the setting before your first update. After an update has been sent, you can't change it for the rest of that tax year (gov.uk). If you're unsure, an agent can tell you which to use (gov.uk).

When you can send

You can send an update any time after the period ends, up to and including the deadline day. You can also send it up to 10 days before the period ends if you don't expect any more transactions (gov.uk). You can send updates more often if you like, but each one must still cover the full period from the start of the tax year (gov.uk).

Digital records for a period must exist before you send that update, or before the deadline if that comes first (gov.uk).

After the year ends: your tax return

After the fourth update, you make any adjustments, add your other income (such as savings interest or dividends) and submit your tax return through the software (gov.uk). The deadline is 31 January following the end of the tax year. For example, a 2025 to 2026 return can be sent any time from 6 April 2026 to 31 January 2027 (gov.uk). gov.uk states that MTD does not change how you pay tax or when payments are due (gov.uk).

You may need to resend your fourth update first, for example to fix errors, add joint property expenses you left out earlier, or record Rent-a-Room income (gov.uk).

For the tax year before you start MTD, you still send a normal Self Assessment return (gov.uk).

Penalties for late updates

2026 to 2027: HMRC will not give penalty points for late quarterly updates. Points still apply for late tax returns (gov.uk).
After 2026 to 2027: each late update earns a penalty point. At 4 points you get a £200 penalty (gov.uk).
Volunteers: late updates don't earn penalties, but late returns do. At 2 points you get a £200 penalty (gov.uk).

Late payment penalties apply if you pay your tax bill late (gov.uk).

A bonus: a running tax estimate

After each update you can see an estimate of your tax bill for the year so far, both in your software and in your HMRC online account (gov.uk). It is less accurate if you have other income you haven't added (gov.uk).

Next steps

Check whether you need MTD, then pick software that supports your update periods.

Quick check: use our free Making Tax Digital start-date checker to see which threshold applies to your income.

Templates: our own templates

These are our own paid spreadsheets for keeping records and planning your money, made by the team behind this site. They are not HMRC-recognised software and can't send anything to HMRC. You still need HMRC-recognised software (for example bridging software) to send MTD updates and returns.

MTD Record Keeper (£11.99): a spreadsheet for keeping income and expense records
UK Budget Planner 2027 (£5.99): a household budget spreadsheet

New explainers: £30,000 from April 2027 · £20,000 from April 2028 · Qualifying income with examples · Embed the checker

More guides

Sources

Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: Send quarterly updates, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/use-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax/send-quarterly-updates (checked 5 Nov 2026)
Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: Create digital records, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/use-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax/create-digital-records (checked 5 Nov 2026)
Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: Submit your tax return, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/use-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax/submit-your-tax-return (checked 5 Nov 2026)

Last checked against gov.uk: 5 November 2026.