After the First MTD Quarterly Deadline: What Happens Now?

The first Making Tax Digital for Income Tax quarterly update deadline has passed. For most standard-period users, Quarter 1 covered 6 April to 5 July 2026 and was due by 7 August 2026.

If you missed it, the answer is not to panic or abandon your records. The answer is to get the right software connection in place, submit the missing update and then prepare calmly for Quarter 2.

What HMRC says about late quarterly updates in 2026/27

HMRC says it will not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates during the 2026 to 2027 tax year. That does not remove the quarterly-update requirement. HMRC also says the quarterly updates must be sent before you can submit the tax return.

Late tax return penalties still matter. The 2026/27 tax return deadline is 31 January 2028, and you still need to pay any tax due by the relevant Self Assessment payment deadline.

If you missed Q1

1. Check that you are actually in the April 2026 MTD group.
2. Make sure you have signed up for MTD for Income Tax through GOV.UK.
3. Use the same personal Government Gateway account when authorising software.
4. Prepare cumulative figures from 6 April to 5 July 2026 for each business or property source.
5. Submit each required source separately.
6. Save the receipt and HMRC correlation ID.

Do not combine self-employment and UK property into one figure. HMRC treats each business or property source separately.

What Q2 covers

For standard update periods, Q2 covers 6 April to 5 October 2026 and is due by 7 November 2026. It is cumulative, so it contains the year-to-date totals from the start of the tax year, not just July to October.

If you spot an error in the figures you submitted for Q1, correct your records and make sure the Q2 year-to-date totals are right. HMRC's cumulative model means later quarterly updates can replace earlier year-to-date totals.

What should be in your spreadsheet now?

Your digital records should show the date, amount and category for each business income or expense. A spreadsheet can be a digital record, as long as it is kept properly and linked to compatible software for submission.

For flonancial's simple route, each supported sole-trader or UK-property source needs a cumulative income total and a cumulative ordinary expenses total. Support for UK property with residential mortgage interest or other residential finance costs is in development, but it is not live yet.

If HMRC connection failed

The most common post-deadline connection problems are not caused by HMRC being busy. They are usually sign-up or authorisation mismatches:

• the person has not completed the separate MTD for Income Tax sign-up;
• the Government Gateway account is not the one used for MTD;
• the National Insurance number does not match the HMRC account;
• the person is trying to use an agent account in an individual flow; or
• HMRC has not yet made the MTD enrolment visible to software.

Our guide to MTD HMRC connection errors explains the checks in more detail.

What has changed after the first deadline?

The urgency has moved from Q1 panic to Q2 routine. The right goal now is to make the next update boring: keep records up to date, reconcile monthly, submit before 7 November 2026 and keep the receipt.

MTD is not quarterly tax payment. You are sending summary updates to HMRC during the year. Your tax return and final tax position still come later.

A practical Q2 plan

1. By the end of August, make sure your MTD sign-up and software connection work.
2. At the end of September, reconcile income and expenses to your bank records.
3. After 5 October, prepare the Q2 cumulative totals.
4. Submit before 7 November 2026.
5. Keep the receipt with your spreadsheet records.

Read HMRC's quarterly-update guidance and penalty guidance for the official position.