HMRC put 864,000 sole traders and landlords in scope for this tax year, and reported on 12 August that 436,000 had sent a first quarterly update. If your records are still in a shoebox, a banking app, or your head, you are a long way from alone — and the way out is smaller than it looks.
Quarterly updates are cumulative. The next one is due 7 November 2026 and it covers 6 April 2026 to 5 October 2026 — not July to September. Send that, and the update you missed is caught up in the same submission.
Pick your quarter, get the exact cumulative period and the deadline. Runs in your browser — no sign-up, and no figure leaves your device.
Work out my period → Am I even in MTD? → Free forever · no cookies, no trackers · the full recovery hubFree 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.
HMRC auto-sign-up guidance read on GOV.UK on 2 September 2026 · free-software check run on HMRC's own finder on 1 September 2026 · the underlying quarterly-update rules from our GOV.UK corpus, last checked 14 August 2026
If you are behind on Making Tax Digital, the next quarterly update is due 7 November 2026 — and because updates are cumulative, that one submission also catches up the quarter you missed. This page gives you the deadline table, what an update actually contains, and the free HMRC-recognised software route, before it mentions anything we sell.
The two figures at the top are HMRC's own, from its news releases of 5 February 2026 (864,000 in scope) and 12 August 2026 (436,000 first updates sent). We have deliberately not subtracted one from the other to produce a "how many are behind" headline: they were published six months apart and measure different things, so that subtraction would be our arithmetic, not HMRC's finding.
This is the table people get wrong. Every update runs from the start of the tax year to the end of that period — it is a running total, not a separate three months. Choosing calendar update periods moves the period boundaries; it does not move the deadlines.
| Update | Standard periods | Calendar periods | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st update | 6 April 2026 to 5 July 2026 | 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026 | 7 August 2026 |
| 2nd update | 6 April 2026 to 5 October 2026 | 1 April 2026 to 30 September 2026 | 7 November 2026 |
| 3rd update | 6 April 2026 to 5 January 2027 | 1 April 2026 to 31 December 2026 | 7 February 2027 |
| 4th update | 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 | 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 | 7 May 2027 |
Generated from The Income Tax (Digital Obligations) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/336), reg 12 Table 1 and reg 13 Table 2 — the same tested date logic behind our deadline calculator. Two of these four dates fall at a weekend and nothing in the regulations moves them.
A quarterly update is a summary of income and expense totals in HMRC's categories, generated by your software. HMRC never sees an individual receipt. It does not replace your tax return and it does not mean paying tax quarterly — you still file one return by 31 January and pay on the same dates as before.
There are no penalty points for late quarterly updates in the 2026 to 2027 tax year. That waiver is narrower than the way it gets repeated: it does not cover your tax return for 2026 to 2027, which is due 31 January 2028 and is in the points system, and it does not cover late payment. HMRC's guidance is also explicit that you cannot submit your tax return until your quarterly updates are in.
HMRC published guidance on 24 August 2026 for people it signs up itself: from September 2026, anyone in scope for 2026 to 2027 who has not signed up will be signed up by HMRC, in stages, and contacted afterwards. If that is you, your overdue and upcoming quarterly updates are listed in your HMRC online account — that is the fastest way to see exactly what you owe and by when.
On penalties, that guidance says, in terms: "You will not get penalty points for missing a quarterly update deadline for the 2026 to 2027 tax year. You still need to keep digital records and send your final quarterly update for the tax year before you can submit your tax return. For the 2026 to 2027 tax year, penalty points will still apply for missing the tax return deadline."
→ Check what to do if HMRC has signed you up (gov.uk, 24 August 2026) · what it means for you
HMRC publishes an official list of software recognised for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. We drove that finder ourselves on 1 September 2026 and it returns recognised products that cost £0 — for sole traders and for landlords, including bridging tools, which submit straight from a spreadsheet you already keep. We take no commission from any of them and this site carries no affiliate links.
Only software on HMRC's recognised list can actually send an update. A spreadsheet — ours or anyone's — gets your figures submit-ready; a recognised free tool does the sending. Anyone charging you a monthly fee on the basis that MTD requires it is selling you something HMRC does not.
→ HMRC's official software finder (gov.uk) · how bridging software works
Everything above is free and stays free. The kit is the same job done for you: a bookkeeping spreadsheet already carrying HMRC's quarterly update categories as dropdowns, a Quarterly Summary that adds itself up cumulatively for all four deadlines in both standard and calendar modes, and a plain-English walkthrough of the screens from GOV.UK sign-in to the confirmation receipt.
This kit does not submit anything to HMRC — only software on HMRC's recognised list can do that, and section 3 above shows you how to find one for free. The kit gets your records submit-ready and walks you to the tool that does the sending. It is a spreadsheet, a PDF and a calendar file, not software. If your records are already in order, or you are comfortable building the categories yourself, the free pages on this site are genuinely enough — that is why they come first.
One business, one set of books.
Rental income, one or many properties.
Self-employed AND letting property — two income sources, two update streams.
Free updates for 2026/27: if HMRC changes the quarterly update categories, the deadlines, or the free-tools list during this tax year, the corrected file is emailed to you at no charge. Instant download, sold through Etsy — we never see your card details.
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. Every page on this site names the GOV.UK source it came from and the date we checked it. 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.