Your First MTD Quarterly Update: What Actually Happens

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000. It isn't coming - it's here.

If you want the full picture of who's affected and when, we've written a plain English guide to Making Tax Digital. This post is about the bit people actually worry about: what happens when a quarter closes.

The short answer: not much

A quarterly update is a summary, not a tax return. You're sending HMRC totals - what came in, what went out, by category. That's it. No calculations, no working out what you owe, no final figures.

You are not filing four tax returns a year. That's the misconception that makes this sound like a nightmare.

When they're due

Four a year, on the same dates every year:

7 August - covering 6 April to 5 July
7 November - covering 6 July to 5 October
7 February - covering 6 October to 5 January
7 May - covering 6 January to 5 April

Each one is due a month and two days after the quarter ends, which gives you a reasonable window to get it straight.

You still do a tax return

This is the other thing worth being clear about. Quarterly updates sit alongside Self Assessment, they don't replace it. You still finalise the year and pay what you owe by 31 January, exactly as before.

What changes is that by the time January comes round, the work is already done. You're confirming figures you've been keeping all year rather than reconstructing them from a carrier bag of receipts.

What catches people out

Two things, in my experience.

The first is the threshold. It's based on turnover, not profit - everything you invoiced before taking off materials, fuel and tools. Turn over £55,000 and take home £28,000 and you're still in the first wave. A lot of tradespeople are further forward than they realise.

The second is leaving the record keeping until the deadline. The quarterly update is easy if your records are already digital and already categorised. It's painful if you're starting from scratch four times a year instead of once.

The grace period won't last

HMRC isn't applying penalty points for late quarterly updates during the 2026/27 tax year. After that, missed updates start earning points, and enough points means a fine.

Use the grace period to build the habit rather than to ignore it.

How Bosh handles it

Connect your bank and your income and expenses come in automatically. We recognise the suppliers you actually use - Screwfix, Toolstation, Travis Perkins - and categorise as it happens, so your digital records build themselves.

When a quarter closes we tell you. You check the summary and submit. Bosh is on HMRC's list of software compatible with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, so it goes straight to them.

Read the full Making Tax Digital guide to work out which wave you're in, or start a free trial and get your records in order before the next deadline.