Deadlines & law changes · 2 min
MTD quarterly deadlines: the dates, and what you actually send.
If you're a sole trader or landlord earning over £50,000, your tax admin changed this April: quarterly digital updates, the next due 7 November 2026. Here's the whole rhythm in plain English — and how to make it a non-event.
Deadlines & law changes · Updated 24 September 2026
What changed, in one paragraph
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax went live in April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000. Instead of one self-assessment return each January, you now keep digital records and send HMRC a quarterly update through recognised software, plus a final declaration at year end. The 2026/27 quarterly deadlines are 7 August 2026 (passed), 7 November 2026, 7 February 2027 and 7 May 2027. Dates and thresholds are government policy, i.e. movable — confirm the current position on gov.uk before relying on any blog, including this one.
What a quarterly update actually is — and isn't
It's a summary of your business income and expenses for the quarter, sent from software. It is NOT four tax returns a year — no accounting adjustments, no final figures, no tax bill with each one.
The tax calculation still happens once, at the final declaration
The quarters are running totals, not judgements.
The real requirement underneath is digital record-keeping
Transactions recorded in software (or spreadsheets bridged to software), not a shoebox reconstructed each January.
Miss the rhythm and a points-based penalty system applies
Points per late submission, a fine at the threshold. Not ruinous, but designed to make chronic lateness expensive.
Making it a non-event
The businesses for whom MTD is painless share one habit: records that happen as a by-product of working, not as an event. Concretely — one business bank account, transactions flowing into recognised software automatically, receipts photographed at purchase, and the quarterly deadline reduced to 'open the app, glance, submit'. That's mostly discipline plus cheap automation, and the April-reset guide linked above covers the full setup.
Where does AI genuinely enter? Modestly, and we'll be straight about it: the biggest MTD wins are boring digital habits, not intelligence. The AI-shaped edges are things like voice-noting expenses into tidy records from the van, and — for accountants — the chasing-and-watching machinery across a whole client list, which the accountants' playbook covers. If someone sells you 'AI for MTD' as magic, the magic is a bank feed.
The 7 November checklist
Confirm you're in scope (qualifying income over £50k
Your accountant or gov.uk's checker settles it in minutes).
Confirm your software is MTD-recognised and connected to HMRC
The gov.uk list is definitive; spreadsheets need bridging software.
Get the quarter's transactions in and categorised now, not the first week of November.
If you have an accountant
One message — 'are my quarterlies handled, and what do you need from me by when?' — resolves most panic. If you don't and this all reads as noise, that's the sign you may want one.
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Tell Katalis how you currently keep records and she'll say honestly what the quarterly rhythm needs from you — and whether your accountant or software already covers it.
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