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 in April 2026: quarterly digital updates, due 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. 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 tax return at year end (HMRC used to call it the final declaration; for 2026/27 it's due 31 January 2028). The quarterly deadlines are the same every year: 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. Each update covers the tax year so far, and choosing calendar quarters keeps the same deadlines. 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 year-end tax return
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.
No penalty points for a late update this first year
For 2026/27, HMRC gives no penalty points for a missed quarterly update, but every update must be in before you can file the tax return. From 2027/28 each missed deadline earns a point, and four points means a £200 penalty.
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 checklist before each deadline
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 each quarter's transactions in and categorised as you go, not in the week before the deadline.
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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