What is a quarterly update and what do I actually send?

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.

Short answer

Category totals for your income and expenses, generated by your software. No adjustments, no receipts, no tax return.

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.

What to do tonight

ten minutes, tonight, with a calendar open

Write down 7 November 2026. That is your next quarterly update, and it covers 6 April to 5 October 2026 — the whole run from the start of the tax year, not just the last three months.
Add 31 January 2028 underneath it. That is the tax return for this year, and unlike the quarterly updates it does carry penalty points.
Check which of your four dates fall at a weekend. Two of them do this year, and nothing in the regulations moves them to the Monday.

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.

The free route, before anyone sells you a subscription

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.

A quarterly update is the smallest part of Making Tax Digital, and the part people most overestimate. Your software adds up the digital records you have already created and sends the totals.

What is in an update

Totals for each income and expense category you have used, for each self-employment and property business
The same categories Self Assessment already uses
One update per business — two sole trader businesses means two updates

HMRC does not receive individual digital records such as a receipt or an invoice. You do not make any accounting or tax adjustments before sending a quarterly update.

Updates are cumulative

Each update covers from the start of the tax year to the end of that update period — not just the previous three months. That is a deliberate design: it means correcting an earlier mistake does not require resending old updates, because the next update carries the corrected running total.

A nil quarter still needs an update

If you received no income and incurred no expenses during the last update period, you must still send the quarterly update to tell HMRC.

After you send one

You get an estimate of your tax bill for self-employment and property income, in your software or your HMRC online services account. HMRC folds in what it already holds — for example a student or postgraduate loan plan type. The estimate is less accurate if you have income sources HMRC has not been told about, or if your accounting period does not match the tax year.

You can send more often

You can send an update more often than once a quarter if your software allows it. An extra update still has to cover the full period from the start of the tax year — useful if you want to see what a large receipt does to your estimated bill.

Your four update deadlines →

Questions people ask

Do I send receipts to HMRC under MTD?

No. HMRC does not receive individual digital records such as receipts or invoices — only category totals.

Do I have to send an update if I had no income that quarter?

Yes. If you had no income or expenses in the period you must still send the quarterly update to tell HMRC.

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.

Sources

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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