… you have about 8 days to submit the first MTD return …
— OpenRent Community forum, 31 July 2026
Two land at a weekend — 7 November and 7 February. Nothing moves them.
Changing period type moves the day your update periods start — and not always in the direction you would expect. See the note in your result.
Free to read. No sign-up, no cookies, no trackers. We never ask for your name, National Insurance number, or tax figures — the tools on this site run entirely in your browser.
Your four deadlines, the exact period each one covers, the day of the week it lands on, and a calendar file with reminders. Checked against GOV.UK on 14 August 2026.
Standard or calendar? → What a missed deadline costs → Stopped trading? →
A late quarterly update in 2026 to 2027 carries no penalty — but the waiver does not cover your tax return and does not remove the obligation. And the update you send next covers from the start of the tax year, not the last three months.
→ Missed 7 August — the catch-up, and what your next update must cover
“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.
From the start of your update periods to 5 October (or 30 September on calendar quarters) — not 6 July to 5 October. SI 2026/336 reg 12 defines quarterly update period 2 as “the period beginning with the relevant start date and ending with 5th October”. Updates are cumulative. Pages that still show period 2 as 6 July to 5 October are quoting the revoked 2021 regulations.
No. There is no next-working-day rule for quarterly updates anywhere in SI 2026/336. Your software files to an API that works at weekends, so the date itself is not a problem — but the reminder you set is. In the 2026 to 2027 tax year two of the four deadlines are at a weekend; in 2027 to 2028 it is three of four.
2026 to 2027 through to 2029 to 2030, for standard or calendar update periods, including the start date that applies if you changed period type since last year.
1 April, not 6 April. Under SI 2026/336 reg 12(2)(a), where a calendar quarters election had effect for the previous tax year the relevant start date is 1 April in that previous tax year — so your first standard update period begins five days before the new tax year does.
Yes. Reg 11(3) lets you withdraw the election by notice at any time. The timing decides when it bites: give notice before you have filed any update for the year and the election ends with the previous tax year; give it afterwards and the election still covers the whole of the year you are in (reg 11(4)).
The .ics file is generated in your browser from the dates on screen and downloaded straight to your device. Nothing is sent to us. It carries two reminders per deadline — 14 days and 3 days before — and flags any deadline that falls at a weekend.
Not from a summary of a summary. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is now governed by The Income Tax (Digital Obligations) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/336), made 23 March 2026 and in force from 1 April 2026, which revoked and replaced the Income Tax (Digital Requirements) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/1076). Guidance still describing the 2021 regulations is describing revoked law.
The four deadlines — 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May — and the cumulative period each covers are set by The Income Tax (Digital Obligations) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/336), regulations 12 and 13. The tax return deadline is unchanged at 31 January. Standard update periods run to 5 April; calendar update periods run to 31 March. Nothing in the regulations moves a deadline that falls at a weekend.
Quarterly updates and their deadlines (gov.uk) · the tax return (gov.uk) · who has to use MTD, and when (gov.uk) · SI 2026/336 (legislation.gov.uk)
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.
Thank you. That goes straight to the person who writes these pages.
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