MTD Income Tax deadlines: quarterly updates, tax return and cohort cutoffs

Quarterly update deadlines

Four updates per tax year. Each one covers the cumulative income and expenses from 6 April to the end of the period. Standard period dates and deadlines are:

Calendar update periods (April / July / October / January) are an optional alternative if you select them in software before the first update of the tax year.

Tax return deadline

You must use your Making Tax Digital software to complete and submit your tax return by31 January following the end of the tax year. For the 2026-27 tax year that means 31 January 2028. All four quarterly updates must be sent before you can submit the tax return.

Mandation cohorts

The April 2028 threshold of £20,000 was announced at Spring Statement 2025; legislation is in progress. Once mandated, a taxpayer stays in MTD even if income drops below the threshold, unless they opt out, which is available after three consecutive tax years below the threshold.

What happens if you miss a deadline

For the 2026-27 tax year, HMRC will not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates. This is a transitional easement; late tax return penalty points still apply from the start.

From the 2027-28 tax year, the points-based penalty system applies in full: each missed quarterly update or tax return deadline is one point, and at four points a £200 penalty is charged, with a further £200 for each subsequent missed deadline while at the threshold. Reasonable excuse provisions still apply.

Quarterly updates are cumulative summaries, not tax returns

From the 2025-26 tax year onwards each quarterly update is cumulative: it covers 6 April to the end of the current period and replaces the one before it, rather than reporting only the latest quarter in isolation. A quarterly update is a summary of income and expenses, not a tax return and not a payment. If you get a figure wrong, you do not file a correction; you simply put it right in the next update. You can also send updates more often than quarterly if it suits your bookkeeping.

Calendar update periods

If you would rather your quarters line up with calendar months, you can choosecalendar update periods instead of the standard 6th-to-5th periods. You must select this in your software before the first update of the tax year. The deadlines do not change; only the period boundaries do.

Businesses with a 31 March accounting date can start their obligations from 1 April, which lines up neatly with calendar quarters.

If you have more than one business

Qualifying income combines self-employment and property, but the reporting does not. If you have both a sole trade and rental income, you send separate quarterly updates for each source to the same deadlines, and you complete one tax return for the year. A landlord with two properties reports them as one UK property business; a sole trader with two trades reports each trade separately.

Late payment is a separate set of charges

Penalty points are for late submissions. Paying your tax late is handled separately. For payments relating to 2026-27, the penalties are 3% of the tax owed at day 15, another 3% at day 30, and then an annual rate of 10% charged daily from day 31 until the tax is paid, or for up to two years. For payments relating to 2027-28, the day-15 and day-30 rates are 4% each, with the same 10% annual rate from day 31.

In your first year under the new rules, you have 30 days to pay in full or contact HMRC to arrange a payment plan, so the day-15 penalty does not apply if you act within that window. HMRC charges late payment interest separately from the first day the payment is late. An agreed Time to Payarrangement pauses penalties from the date you contacted HMRC if you keep to it.

See GOV.UK's current MTD penalty guidance for the full rules.

A worked timeline for the April 2026 cohort

If you are mandated from 6 April 2026 (qualifying income over £50,000 on your 2024-25 return), your first full cycle looks like this:

• 7 August 2026 - first quarterly update (6 April to 5 July 2026).
• 7 November 2026 - second quarterly update.
• 7 February 2027 - third quarterly update.
• 7 May 2027 - fourth quarterly update.
• 31 January 2028 - tax return deadline for 2026-27.

Your 2025-26 Self Assessment return, covering the year before MTD starts for you, is filed in the usual way by 31 January 2027. So in the 2027 January you have the old-style return for 2025-26; the MTD tax return for 2026-27 follows a year later.

Related reading

Not sure whether you are in scope yet? Seewhat counts as qualifying income, or use the MTD Start Date Checker to check your figures directly. Already know you will be filing? Seewhether you can keep your spreadsheet. To go back to the homepage, visit aligned.tax.