Standard or calendar update periods — which should I use?

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

Match your accounting period: 5 April year end → standard, 31 March year end → calendar. The deadlines are identical either way.

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.

MTD has two kinds of update period. The choice does not change your deadlines and does not change your tax. It only changes which days the periods start and end on.

The two options

Standard update periods align to the tax year, 6 April to 5 April. Use these if your accounting period ends on 5 April.

Standard 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 cover 1 April to 31 March and end on the last day of the month. HMRC says to consider these if your accounting period covers 1 April to 31 March, because they make record keeping simpler.

Calendar 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)

The rule that catches people

You elect calendar update periods for each source of income in your software by giving notice to HMRC before you send your first quarterly update for that tax year. That is regulation 11(1) of SI 2026/336. Once made, the election is not annual — reg 11(2) makes it run on into “each subsequent digital obligation tax year” until you actively withdraw it.

Changing your mind — the bit that is usually reported wrong

You are not locked in for life. Reg 11(3) lets you withdraw a calendar quarters election by giving a further notice to HMRC at any time in a tax year. What the timing decides is which year the withdrawal bites in, under reg 11(4):

Notice given before you have filed any update for the year you are in → the election's final year is the previous tax year, so you are on standard periods immediately.
Notice given after you have filed an update for that year → the election's final year is the year you are in, so calendar periods still cover the whole of it and standard periods start next year.

The change is made in your software, not in your HMRC online account.

Which day you start recording

Both sets of update periods are cumulative: all four run from one “relevant start date” to the end of that quarter. That start date is not always the one people expect, and it is set by regs 12(2) and 13(2):

Standard periods, and you were on standard periods or in your first year: 6 April.
Calendar periods, and you were on calendar periods or in your first year: 1 April.
Standard periods this year, but calendar periods last year: 1 April — five days before the tax year begins (reg 12(2)(a)). Switching back does not give you a clean 6 April start.
Calendar periods this year, but standard periods last year: 6 April — reg 13(2)(a) withholds the 1 April start on the year you switch in.

The calculator applies all four cases →

Before you choose software

Check the product works with your accounting period. HMRC lists this as something to check — a product may support standard periods, calendar periods, or neither.

See both sets of dates side by side →

Questions people ask

Can I switch between standard and calendar update periods?

You can withdraw a calendar quarters election at any time under SI 2026/336 reg 11(3). If you give notice before filing any update for the tax year you are in, the election ends with the previous year and you are on standard periods now; if you give it after filing an update, calendar periods still cover the whole of that year and standard periods start from the next one.

Do calendar update periods have different deadlines?

No. The deadlines are 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May either way.

If I switch back to standard periods, does my first period start on 6 April?

No. Where a calendar quarters election had effect for the previous tax year, reg 12(2)(a) sets the relevant start date at 1 April in that previous tax year — so your first standard update period starts five days before the new tax year does.

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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