Cumulative Quarterly Updates
What this is
Under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, every quarterly update contains the whole tax year so far, not just the last three months. Q1 covers 6 April to 5 July; Q2 covers 6 April to 5 October; Q3 covers 6 April to 5 January; Q4 covers the full year to 5 April. Each update replaces the one before it at HMRC.
What you see on screen
You will notice it in three places:
- Quarterly Statuses lists the periods as “6 Apr - 5 Jul”, “6 Apr - 5 Oct”, “6 Apr - 5 Jan” and “6 Apr - 5 Apr”
- File a quarter explains “Each submission covers from the start of the tax year to your selected period end date. You can resubmit to correct data, but you cannot submit for an earlier period than your last submission”
- Review & Submit names the update “Q2 Self-Employment Update (Cumulative)” and shows Period Start Date as 6 April
- Past submissions shows totals as Total Income (YTD) and Total Expenses (YTD)
What it means for your spreadsheet
- Keep one running total per figure for the tax year. When you file Q2, the turnover cell should hold turnover from 6 April to 5 October.
- If your workbook has a column per quarter, add a year-to-date column (or a summary sheet) and map that. Do not map the quarter-only column.
- Q4 is the full year. After it, HMRC holds your complete quarterly picture for the year.
Things to know
- HMRC keeps only the latest figures. Submitting Q2 replaces Q1’s figures with the year-to-date ones. That is also how corrections work: submit the period again with the right totals.
- Updates are filed in order. HMRC will not accept a period that ends before the last one you filed, so a later quarter stays Locked until the earlier one is done.
- Deadlines do not change. Q1 is due 7 August, Q2 7 November, Q3 7 February, Q4 7 May, whatever the update periods chosen for the business. See Quarterly Update Deadlines.
- Calendar update periods shift the dates, not the principle. A business on calendar quarters files 1 April to 30 June, then 1 April to 30 September, and so on.
- A quarter with no activity still contains the year so far. If nothing happened in Q3, the Q3 update carries the same figures as Q2.
FAQ
I filed Q1 with the quarter’s figures only. Was that wrong?
For Q1 the quarter and the year to date are the same, so no. From Q2 on, make sure the figures include everything since 6 April.
Do I need to add up the quarters myself?
Your spreadsheet does. Keep a year-to-date total and map that cell; aligned.tax sends what the cell says.
Does this affect my Self Assessment return?
The quarterly updates are not the final return. HMRC uses them for an in-year estimate. The year is finalised after Q4 in a separate step.