Checked against GOV.UK on 20 October 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.
MTD Survival Kit, £28 for a sole trader or a landlord, £46.08 for both. It is one payment, with no subscription.
Built for anyone behind on updates or holding HMRC's letter. The kit holds a bookkeeping spreadsheet in HMRC's update categories, a walkthrough and a deadline calendar file. It sends nothing to HMRC. Every answer on this site stays free.
See what is in the kit →The update due 7 November 2026 covers 6 April to 5 October 2026 on standard update periods, not July to September. In HMRC's words, each quarterly update covers from the start of the tax year to the end of the update period
. Source: gov.uk/guidance/use-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax/send-quarterly-updates, read 20 October 2026.
Here are the dates, in the order they arrive. Your next quarterly update is due 7 February 2027, and because updates are cumulative it covers 6 April 2026 to 5 January 2027. Missed an earlier one? GOV.UK does not say, on the pages we read, that a later update closes it, so check the list in your HMRC online account and send any that are still open. 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.
For the 7 November update, the counts are HMRC's own. It reported on 12 August 2026 that 436,000 sole traders and landlords had sent a first quarterly update. By then 570,000 had signed up. Its count of people in scope, 864,000 (HMRC, 5 February 2026), is six months older and counts something else. That means the gap between them is not a count of who is late.
one sitting, 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 20 October 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 November is the deadline for the second quarterly update of the tax year. Like every update, it is cumulative — it covers everything from the start of the tax year to the end of the period, not just the second quarter.
| Update periods you use | Period covered |
|---|---|
| Standard (accounting period ends 5 April) | 6 April to 5 October |
| Calendar (accounting period ends 31 March) | 1 April to 30 September |
Because updates are cumulative, this one restates the first quarter as well. If you got something wrong in the update you sent by 7 August, you fix the digital record and the November update carries the corrected total. You do not resend the August one.
Any time from the end of the update period to the deadline — and up to 10 days before the period ends, if you are sure no further transactions will be recorded.
For the 2026 to 2027 tax year, HMRC will not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates. You still have to send the update: you cannot submit your tax return until your quarterly updates are in. From the 2027 to 2028 tax year, a missed update deadline gives you one penalty point, and £200 is charged at four points.
I have missed an update → How the points work →
6 April to 5 October on standard update periods, or 1 April to 30 September on calendar update periods.
For the 2026 to 2027 tax year there are no penalty points for late quarterly updates, but you must still send the update before you can submit your tax return.
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. We'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.
Sources re-checked 2 November 2026: 18 of 18 unchanged since we read them.
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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