MTD Quarterly Update Checklist

Everything your first Making Tax Digital update actually needs — in the order you need it. Free, nothing to sign up for.

Next quarterly update deadline: 7 August 2026 Loading…

Does this apply to you?

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is phased in by qualifying income — your gross self-employment and property income added together, before expenses.

Qualifying income over	In tax year	You start
£50,000	2024/25	6 April 2026 — already started
£30,000	2025/26	6 April 2027
£20,000	2026/27	6 April 2028

If you are under the threshold for your year, you have nothing to file quarterly yet — carry on with your normal Self Assessment return. Plenty of people are being sold software for a deadline that is still two years away from them.

Which dates does your update cover?

There are two sets of update periods. The deadlines are identical — only the period covered changes. Pick whichever matches how you keep your books.

The bit almost everyone gets wrong: each update is cumulative from the start of the tax year, not just the last three months. Your November update covers 6 April to 5 October, not July to October. That is deliberate — it means you fix a mistake by correcting your records, not by resubmitting an old quarter.

The checklist

0 of 9 done ·

Three things that catch people out

A spreadsheet on its own will not file it. HMRC does not accept a spreadsheet as a submission. You either keep records in MTD-compatible software, or you keep them in a spreadsheet and pair it with bridging software that carries the totals across. Anyone selling you a spreadsheet as "HMRC approved filing" is selling you a problem.

A nil quarter still has to be filed. No income and no expenses in the period does not mean no update. You send it anyway to tell HMRC there was nothing.

Penalty points are switched off for 2026/27 — but the update is not optional. HMRC will not apply late-submission penalty points for quarterly updates during the 2026/27 tax year. That is breathing room, not an exemption: you still cannot submit your tax return until the quarterly updates are in, and late-return penalties apply as normal.

Need the record-keeping half sorted?

The checklist above is the process. If what you are missing is the actual book — one row per payment, mapped to the HMRC boxes, with the quarterly totals adding themselves up — that is what these are. Excel and Google Sheets, same file, one-time price.

Sole Trader MTD Tracker →
SA103 boxes · $14.99 Landlord MTD Tracker →
SA105 rental · $14.99

Instant download · one-time, no subscription · templates, not tax advice

Where these figures come from

Every date and threshold on this page is read from HMRC's own guidance, not from a summary of it:

Send quarterly updates — update periods, deadlines, nil quarters, 2026/27 penalty position
Check if you're eligible — qualifying-income thresholds and start dates
Create digital records — what a digital record has to contain
Find compatible software — including bridging tools if you want to stay in a spreadsheet

This is a checklist, not tax advice. Capital allowances, losses and payments on account are outside what a quarterly update covers — for anything unusual, talk to an accountant.