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 a few 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”. The update always runs from the start of the tax year to the end of the quarter you choose; there is no shorter, part-period option. Where one quarter you can still file would also cover an earlier quarter you have not filed, a note under that quarter says so, and the missed quarter’s own card notes that sending it on its own is optional
Review & Submit names the update “Q2 Self-Employment Update (Cumulative)” and shows Period Start Date as 6 April. Figures prepared from your transactions are reviewed and sent on this same step, with the source shown as “Saved checked records”. Just above the declaration it also says which period the figures must cover, using HMRC’s own dates for the update, for example “These figures should cover Q1 and Q2: 6 April 2026 to 5 October 2026, the year so far, not just this quarter.” If any boxes in this upload were filled in for you, it says so in the same place and asks you to check: “Some boxes were filled from your mapping last time. Check the figures match this quarter before you send.”, or “Some boxes were filled from a layout other people have used. Check the figures match this quarter before you send.” when the boxes came from a shared layout. Nothing is sent until you tick the declaration, “I confirm this data is accurate and authorise submission to HMRC”. You can click anywhere in the declaration box to tick it, and if you press the submit button first, the box is highlighted and says “Tick this box to submit.” Where more than one thing is still outstanding, the note under the button lists them all, starting “To submit, you still need to:”
The submitted screen, after HMRC accepts the update, offers View your tax calculation beneath its other buttons. Because the update HMRC now holds covers the year so far, the calculation it asks HMRC for is an in-year one worked out from those year-to-date figures, and it opens that calculation once HMRC has it ready. It sends no new figures to HMRC, and your update stays filed whatever the calculation does. If HMRC is still working it out, the screen says so and offers Check it on your tax estimate to pick it up there later. If HMRC cannot prepare one, it says “HMRC could not prepare your calculation just now. Your update is still filed. You can try again.” The action is only shown to someone HMRC lets read the calculation, so a supporting agent does not see it
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.

Switching between a spreadsheet and transactions

Transactions and a summary spreadsheet are two ways to work out the same year-to-date totals. The quarter’s Add figures step asks which you are using, How do you keep your records?, and has two answers: A summary of totals and My transactions. Select one, then choose Continue. Once a business has an update, the step says how the last update was worked out and marks the matching answer Used last time. Once the way this year’s updates are worked out is settled, the step shows one line instead, for example “You’re filing this year from your transactions”, with Continue and the other way beside it.

A summary of totals opens a second step, Add your summary of totals, where you choose Upload your spreadsheet or Use our template. Mapping and review carry on from there.
My transactions takes you to Transactions for that business and quarter, where you keep the records. When they are ready, File this quarter there brings you back to this update and opens the quarter’s transaction review. Where you are correcting a quarter you have already sent, the correction is carried over as well: however you move to Transactions from the update, it opens on that quarter and brings you back to the correction, rather than to a fresh update. Once the figures have been prepared from those records, they are reviewed and sent on Review & submit, the same step a summary spreadsheet uses. If a summary was part-finished when you did that, it waits where you left it, still saved.

Choosing the way the business did not use last time needs one confirmation first, shown under the answer you chose on the same step:

Switching to a summary spreadsheet: your spreadsheet replaces the year-to-date figures. Transactions you have already entered stay in aligned.tax but are not used for this update, and they are labelled “Not used: this update came from a spreadsheet”.
Switching to transactions: choose “Enter every transaction from 6 April”, which replaces the year-to-date figures HMRC holds with the totals of your transactions, or “Start from your last update’s figures”, which takes the figures HMRC already holds up to the end of your last update and adds the transactions you enter after that. With the second, anything you missed earlier can be added as a correction.

When HMRC already has an update this account did not send, for example one sent from other software or from another aligned.tax account, the same confirmation opens with the heading HMRC already has an update for this tax year instead. It names the period HMRC holds, with its year, for example “HMRC holds an update for 6 April to 5 July 2026 that wasn’t sent from this account.”; if HMRC’s dates are not known, it says “for this tax year” instead. Nothing is being switched: for a spreadsheet it explains that your spreadsheet needs the figures for the whole year so far, from the start of the tax year (6 April, or 1 April on calendar update periods), and that sending it replaces what HMRC holds, and you tick “I understand my update will replace the figures HMRC holds for this business for this tax year.” For transactions, the two choices above are offered under the same heading.

Tick the box confirming what will happen, then click Continue. aligned.tax carries on with the answer you chose, and you are not asked the question again. Where the confirmation was reached from File this quarter on Transactions, it opens the quarter’s transaction review. The choice is remembered for that business and tax year; to change it again, choose the other way at a later quarter and confirm the switch.

Sometimes the switch is only needed once a spreadsheet update is under way: HMRC has taken an update for the business from other software, or how the year is worked out changed after you started. If that happens when you confirm or submit, aligned.tax stops, sends nothing to HMRC, and names the cause, either “HMRC holds an update for this business that was sent from other software, so this update cannot build on your last update from aligned.tax. Before it can be sent, choose how to continue at the quarter’s Add figures step.” or “Your last update was worked out a different way. Before this update can be sent, choose how to switch at the quarter’s Add figures step.” The message carries a Choose how to continue button that opens the switch step there and then, so you are not sent back to find it yourself; the offer belongs to that message, so moving to another step withdraws it. Once that switch is saved, a summary update carries on at Add your summary of totals, so you can prepare the figures again. If you reopen a spreadsheet update at Review & Submit and the switch is now needed, aligned.tax takes you to it straight away rather than letting the send be refused.

Going back does not throw away the work you have already done on the update. Back from the mapping screen returns to Add your summary of totals, and back again reaches How do you keep your records?; Use My transactions on the summary source step returns to the question with My transactions already chosen. However you get there, with the wizard’s own Back, the step list, or your browser’s Back button, the step keeps a workbook you have mapped or an import you have started and offers Continue mapping or Continue reviewing, and Start again, for it. If work for this quarter is saved somewhere else, in another tab for instance, while Add your summary of totals is open, that step shows the saved work in place of its own choices and keeps a Back button to the records question. Matches Smart Map has found but you have not applied yet are kept as well, so coming back to the mapping screen shows the same review again rather than starting the matching over. Those matches belong to the spreadsheet they were found in, so they are put down when you open a different spreadsheet for the quarter, when you choose Start again and confirm it, and when the update is sent; leaving the quarter for a different one puts them down too, unless the draft you saved still holds that same spreadsheet, in which case reopening the quarter brings them back with it. Nothing else is cleared. A workbook you had saved earlier counts too while aligned.tax is still reading it back in, so going back during that moment cannot clear it by accident. When you reopen saved work from a link, such as a quarter on Home, your browser’s Back button lands on the records question with the work still open rather than taking you out of the update. Leaving the upload page altogether asks first whenever a mapping is not saved anywhere, and also, from whichever step you are on, whenever Smart Map has matches you have not applied and this browser could not keep them: Leave without saving your mapping? offers Stay, Save and leave where there is a spreadsheet to save, which saves the mapping as a draft before you go, and Leave. The draft holds your spreadsheet and the matches you have applied. If Smart Map has matches you have not applied yet, for this quarter or any other quarter you have worked on in this visit, and this browser cannot keep them, Save and leave keeps you on the page and says so: “We could not keep Smart Map’s unapplied matches on this device. Your spreadsheet and applied matches are saved as a draft. Apply the rest before you leave, or choose Leave to go without them.” Apply the ones you want, or choose Leave to go without them.

Transactions are not on offer for every update. When adding figures from transactions is switched off, My transactions is unavailable and says so: “Adding figures from transactions is switched off for now. Use a summary spreadsheet for this update instead.” The switch confirmation refuses it as well, so keep a year-to-date summary spreadsheet for that update. If you reload this step, or open it straight from a link, aligned.tax has to look up your transaction records for that business again: the answer says “Checking whether you can use your transactions for this update…” for a moment, and becomes available once the check finishes. Where transactions cannot be used for the update at all, choosing them says so: “Transactions cannot be used for this update yet. Choose A summary of totals instead.”

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, starting from Correct & Resubmit, which sits beside the latest quarter you have filed for that business in Quarterly Statuses and on the other screens that show your filings. Only that latest filed quarter can be corrected. Once the year’s return has been sent to HMRC, its quarters cannot be corrected on their own. If you open a quarter that cannot be corrected, aligned.tax stops with “This quarter cannot be corrected here” and says what to do instead: once the year has been finalised, that the figures now change only by amending the return; otherwise, open Past submissions and use Correct & Resubmit on the latest quarter shown for that business. See Correcting a Submitted Quarter.
Figures prepared from your transactions are checked against your records before you send. While they are open on Review & Submit, Check filing status reads the latest status for that quarter and reads “Checking…” while it does; if the read fails, the step says “We could not check the status of this update. Try again in a moment.” and keeps the button so you can try again. If your records changed after the figures were prepared, Prepared figures need updating appears: “Your records changed after these figures were prepared. Prepare them again to include the latest changes before you submit.”, with Prepare again and Back to transactions. Submitting stays unavailable until you do, and the note under the button lists “prepare these figures again (above)”; if you try anyway, aligned.tax says “Your records have changed since these figures were prepared. Prepare them again before submitting.” Where the figures list expenses as one total and that choice is not known here, Prepare again sends you back to your transactions to confirm it: “These figures list expenses as one total. Prepare them again from your transactions, where you confirm that choice.” If a send of prepared figures goes unanswered, aligned.tax checks the filing status for that quarter rather than offering you a second send.
A missed quarter does not have to be sent on its own. The next update covers it, because it runs from 6 April. If you missed Q1, one Q2 update (6 April to 5 October) meets both: HMRC’s guidance says the second update satisfies the obligations for both Q1 and Q2. aligned.tax marks the missed quarter as covered when HMRC accepts the later update, and HMRC can take up to an hour to show it as fulfilled. For the 2026-27 tax year there is no penalty point for the missed deadline. For 2027-28, if you joined MTD in April 2026, HMRC may still give a penalty point for the missed deadline; the government has said people required to join in April 2027 will not get points for 2027-28 quarterly updates. You can still send the missed quarter on its own first if you prefer. An earlier open quarter never stops you from filing a later one.
An update cannot end before one already sent. HMRC will not accept a period that ends before the last one you filed, so once a later quarter has been sent, an earlier open quarter shows as Covered rather than something to file, its note says it is “Covered by your later update”, and there is nothing to send for it. If you try to open it anyway, aligned.tax stops with “This Quarter Is Already Covered”.
If sending your spreadsheet gets no answer, your work stays where it is. Sending a completed template can go unanswered too, when your connection drops for a moment. On Add your summary of totals, the file stays with the step and a notice says “We didn’t hear back from aligned.tax. Your connection may have dropped for a moment. Your spreadsheet is still here.”, with Try again beside it. Continue to Review on the mapping screen behaves the same way and keeps the mapping exactly as you left it: “We didn’t hear back from aligned.tax. Your connection may have dropped for a moment. Your mapping is still here.”, again with Try again. Trying again repeats only the part that did not finish, so an attempt that did reach aligned.tax is not done twice. Each notice belongs to the step it appeared on, so moving to another step clears it.
If a send gets no answer, aligned.tax checks instead of letting you send twice. When the answer to a send does not come back in time, Review & Submit says “We’re checking whether HMRC received this update. Please don’t send it again.”, the button reads “Checking with HMRC…” and submitting stays unavailable while your update is re-read for about two minutes. If it turns out HMRC took it, you get the normal confirmation for the update, without the HMRC receipt details. If it still cannot be told either way, the Outcome needs checking panel appears: “Outcome needs checking. Check submission history before taking any further action.” The check belongs to the quarter it was sent for, so if you move to another quarter while it is running it stops and tells you nothing more about the first one; open Past submissions to see whether that update reached HMRC. Where only the declaration step went unanswered, nothing reached HMRC and the message says so: “We did not get an answer in time. Nothing has been sent to HMRC. Try submitting again.”
A refused update is not a sent update. If we have to stop an update for a reason that would come back the same way on a second attempt, Review & Submit shows Nothing was sent to HMRC and explains that submitting again now would be refused for the same reason. Submitting stays unavailable until you choose Refresh HMRC details and check again, which fetches your obligations and figures from HMRC again and re-checks the update. Submitting is offered again only once that refresh and re-check have both worked: if they have not, you see “We could not refresh all of your HMRC details. Try again in a few minutes.” and submitting stays unavailable. If the refusal was that the business this update was prepared for is no longer active, refreshing cannot rescue it: “This update was prepared for business details that are no longer active, so it cannot be sent. Choose another quarter, or start this update again so it uses your current business details.” If instead the refusal is that how this business files must be chosen first, the message offers Choose how to continue, which opens the switch step; see Switching between a spreadsheet and transactions above. For figures prepared from your transactions, a refusal that names what to do next carries those steps beside the message: View past submissions, where the previous update needs checking first, and a button to prepare the update again, Prepare this update again where that can be done here, or Return to transactions where the figures are prepared there.
Your tax estimate only reflects what HMRC holds. Because each update replaces the last, the calculation behind View your tax calculation on the submitted screen is worked out from the year-to-date figures in the update you have just sent. An estimate taken before a quarterly update does not include it. See Your tax estimate.
Foreign property figures have to be matched to an HMRC property before they can be sent. From the 2026-27 tax year, a foreign property update has a Match properties step between your summary of totals and Review & Submit: check that each property from your spreadsheet is matched to the right HMRC record, then choose Confirm & Continue. If any figure still has no HMRC property, Submit to HMRC opens Match properties instead of sending, so nothing reaches HMRC until each property is matched; if your properties could not be checked with HMRC, the review says so and pressing Submit to HMRC again tries that check once more. Reopening an update like that takes you to Match properties as well, even where its figures were already checked and ready to send, and if the properties could not be checked as it reopened, the page says so and offers Try again and Start a new upload.
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. In the first tax year on calendar update periods HMRC starts them on 6 April instead (6 April to 30 June, then 6 April to 30 September), and from the next tax year they start on 1 April.
A workbook that says it covers a different period is refused. If your workbook has labelled period dates, such as Cumulative from and Cumulative to, and they do not match the update you chose (for example 6 July to 5 October for an update HMRC needs from 6 April to 5 October), aligned.tax stops with “Your workbook covers a different period from this update” and sends nothing to HMRC. The message names the update periods HMRC has for the business (standard or calendar) and the dates HMRC needs. A common case is a workbook dated from 1 April in the first tax year on calendar update periods, when HMRC needs it from 6 April. Put the year-to-date figures and dates in the workbook and upload it again. A workbook without labelled period dates is not refused for this reason, so check yourself that its figures run from the start of the tax year.
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?

For Summary, keep a year-to-date total in your spreadsheet and map that cell. For saved transactions, the filing journey prepares figures from eligible records for the covered period and brings them to Review & Submit; check the period and totals before confirming. If you started from your last update’s figures, the update adds your transactions to the figures HMRC already held.

What if I spot a mistake after submitting?

Just above the declaration, Review & Submit tells you what you can still put right: while a later quarter is yet to be filed, “Spotted a mistake later? You can correct and resubmit this update until you send your next quarterly update, which replaces these figures anyway.”; for the last update of the year, “Spotted a mistake later? You can correct and resubmit this update until you finalise the year.” Once the year’s return has been sent to HMRC, a correction here is no longer possible on its own: the figures change only by amending the return.

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.