Your MTD Quarterly Update Is Due 7 November: What to Send and How

What your MTD quarterly update actually contains

The MTD quarterly update deadline on 7 November is less than three weeks away. If you're one of the sole traders or landlords who joined Making Tax Digital for Income Tax back in April, your second quarterly update is due — and this is where most people trip up: each update covers the tax year so far, not just the last three months.

So the update due 7 November covers everything from 6 April to 5 October 2026. Your MTD software adds up your digital records and produces totals for each income and expense category — the same categories Self Assessment has always used. It's a summary, not a return: no accounting adjustments needed, and HMRC doesn't see your individual invoices or receipts.

The practical upside of this cumulative design? If you spot a mistake from the first quarter, you don't resend anything. You just fix it in your records and it rolls into this update automatically.

Who has to send an update by 7 November

You need to send this update if you joined MTD for Income Tax on 6 April 2026 — that means sole traders and landlords whose qualifying income (roughly, your turnover from self-employment and property, before expenses) was over £50,000 in 2024/25. You send one update per business: one for your self-employment, one for your property income, if you have both.

Two edge cases worth knowing:

• If you had no income or expenses in a period, you still have to send the update — a nil update is still an update.
• If your business's accounting period runs 1 April to 31 March, your software should be set to calendar update periods (1 April to 30 September for this one) instead of the standard tax-year periods. The deadline stays 7 November either way.

Not sure whether you're in scope? HMRC's own guidance on sending quarterly updates for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax walks through the periods and deadlines in detail — and it's worth a read before you start.

What happens if you miss it

Here's the good news: HMRC will not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates during the 2026/27 tax year. This is a first-year concession, so a late update this November won't cost you a penalty point.

But — and it's a big but — you can't file your tax return until all your quarterly updates are sent. Leave them undone and they'll sit there as a block on your January return. And penalty points absolutely still apply to late tax returns this year. So "no penalty for being late" is not the same as "optional".

Next year the gloves come off: from 2027/28, each missed quarterly update deadline earns a penalty point, and four points means a £200 penalty.

How to get yours sent this week

Don't leave this until 6 November. Here's the simple version:

1. Check your software is ready

You need MTD-compatible software — Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent and others all have MTD support, and there's a list of bookkeeping services that covers exactly this kind of setup if you're doing it with help. If HMRC signed you up itself rather than you signing up voluntarily, double-check your MTD details in your HMRC online account first.

2. Get your figures in from 6 April

Your digital records need to run from the start of the tax year. Import your bank transactions, add any cash income, and categorise everything. Your software then works out the totals for you to check before sending. If the numbers look wrong, the problem is almost always an uncategorised transaction, not the software.

3. Send the update and read your tax estimate

Once the totals look right, send it through the software. After sending, you'll see HMRC's estimate of your tax bill for the year so far — in the software or in your HMRC online services account. This is the bit people underestimate: quarterly updates give you a running picture of what you'll owe, months before January. If the estimate surprises you, that's information you can act on now — not a panic in the week before the return deadline.

Running into trouble? Common questions about deadlines and penalties are covered in our FAQs, and you can browse our blog for plain-English MTD explainers.

One more thing to diary while you're here

The £50,000 threshold is only the start. From 6 April 2027, MTD expands to anyone with qualifying income over £30,000 — around a million more sole traders and landlords. If you're in that £30k–£50k band, you don't have an update due on 7 November, but you'll want your digital records sorted well before next April, because from 2027/28 the quarterly updates carry penalty points.

So treat this November as a rehearsal with training wheels. Get the process smooth now, while there's no penalty for a stumble — and if the admin side is eating your evenings, that's exactly the kind of thing a bookkeeper takes off your hands.