If Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD IT) applies to you this year, the date to have in your diary is 7th August 2026. That’s when your first quarterly update is due, and for a lot of sole traders and landlords, it’s the moment MTD stops being something to prepare for and starts being something you’re actually doing.
I wrote about the basics of MTD for Income Tax back in October, covering who it affects and when the different phases kick in. This time I want to focus on what’s happening right now, because if your total income from self employment and property was over £50,000 on your 2024/25 tax return, this deadline is yours.
What’s actually due on 7th August
Your first quarterly update covers the period from 6th April to 5th July 2026 (or 1st April to 30th June if you’ve elected to use calendar quarters instead). It needs to be sent to HMRC through your MTD compatible software by 7th August.
It’s worth being clear about what this update is and isn’t. It’s not a tax return. You’re not making any tax or accounting adjustments at this stage. Your software pulls together the totals from your digital records, income and expenses for the quarter, and sends those totals to HMRC. If everything looks right, you can send it as soon as you’re ready. If you need more time to finish your digital records for the quarter, you have until 7th August to get it in.
No penalty points this year, but don’t take that as a free pass
HMRC has confirmed there’s a soft landing for the first year. If you’re required to use MTD from 6th April 2026, you won’t get penalty points for sending a quarterly update late during the 2026/27 tax year. That’s a genuine bit of breathing room while everyone gets used to the new way of working.
What it doesn’t do is remove the need to send the update at all. You still can’t submit your tax return until all four quarterly updates for the year are in, and penalties still apply if your tax return itself is late or your bill isn’t paid on time. So the soft landing takes the pressure off getting every quarter perfect first time, not off doing it at all.
If you haven’t sent one before
The process itself is more straightforward than people expect. Your software builds the update from records you’re already keeping digitally, so as long as your bookkeeping for April to June is up to date, there shouldn’t be much left to do beyond checking the figures and pressing send. You’ll also get to see an estimate of your tax bill building up as the year goes on, which a lot of my clients have found genuinely useful for planning ahead rather than facing one big number in January.
If you’re not certain whether MTD applies to you yet, or you know it does but haven’t signed up or linked your software to HMRC, now is the time to sort that out rather than leaving it until the days before the deadline.
Not sure where you stand
If you’re within scope for this first phase and haven’t started, or you have started but want a second pair of eyes on your setup before this first submission, I’d rather help you get it right now than firefight a missed deadline later. I am an accountant based in Cornwall but can help you wherever you are based in the UK. Give me a call on 01726 932182, message me via WhatsApp on the same number, or drop me a line at contact@jbaccounts.co.uk, and I’ll get you sorted before 7th August arrives.