Checked against GOV.UK on 14 August 2026 · Applies from 6 April 2026 onwards.
“If it is over £50k, then you have about 8 days to submit the first MTD return, so you are running late.”
We hear this most. a landlord counting the days for someone else, OpenRent Community forum, 31 July 2026 — someone in the same position as you.
Here are the dates, in the order they arrive. Your next quarterly update is due 7 November 2026, and because updates are cumulative it covers 6 April to 5 October 2026 — so it also catches up 7 August 2026 if you missed it. Your tax return for 2026 to 2027 is due 31 January 2028, and that one is still in the points system. And from September 2026 HMRC has been signing people up itself, in stages, if they had not signed up.
You are not alone, and this is the measured version of that sentence. HMRC put 864,000 sole traders and landlords in scope for this tax year (HMRC, 5 February 2026), and reported on 12 August 2026 that 436,000 had sent a first quarterly update and 570,000 had signed up. We have not subtracted one from the other to make a "how many are behind" headline — they were published six months apart and count different things — but you can see the size of the room you are standing in.
ten minutes, tonight, with a calendar open
None of those three steps costs money. Anyone charging you to do them is selling you something HMRC gives away.
Where these come from, on GOV.UK: quarterly updates and their deadlines · the tax return · who has to use MTD, and when · working out qualifying income · the recognised-software finder · what to do if HMRC signed you up.
HMRC publishes the official list of software recognised for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, and its own guidance says plainly that “free products are available for those with simple tax affairs”. We drove that finder ourselves on 1 September 2026 and it returns recognised products costing £0 — for sole traders and for landlords, including bridging tools that submit straight from a spreadsheet you already keep. We take no commission from any of them, we rank none of them, and this site carries no affiliate links.
HMRC's official software finder (gov.uk) · how bridging software works · the free two-number check · your own four dates
Signing up for Making Tax Digital is free at GOV.UK. So is the checker on this page, and so is every answer on this site.
7 May closes the tax year's quarterly updates. It is the one update that falls in the following tax year, and it is the one you are most likely to need to resend.
| Update periods you use | Period covered |
|---|---|
| Standard (accounting period ends 5 April) | 6 April to 5 April — the whole tax year |
| Calendar (accounting period ends 31 March) | 1 April to 31 March — the whole accounting year |
HMRC's guidance expects it. You may need to resend the fourth quarterly update before you submit your tax return in order to:
Do the resend before you make any tax adjustments.
After the final update you check whether you need to make adjustments to your self-employment and property figures, add your other income and gains, and submit the tax return from your software — by 31 January.
What the MTD tax return looks like →
Yes. HMRC expects the fourth quarterly update to be resent where you need to correct records, add joint-property expenses or claim Rent-a-Room relief after the year end.
Andrew at Axion Labs
The dates are the part people lose sleep over, and they're genuinely the easy part — there are four of them and they're the same every year. The bit that catches people isn't the date, it's what the update covers: it runs from the start of the tax year each time, not just the last three months. I've generated every date on this page from the regulations rather than typing them, because a site that prints one wrong deadline is worse than no site at all.
General information about UK tax rules, not tax advice. Your own circumstances and HMRC's official guidance govern your position. If you are unsure, speak to an accountant or contact HMRC. Tax rules change — if this page is more than a few months old, check the GOV.UK pages linked above. Found an error? Email hello@getaxionlabs.com and we will correct it.
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