HMRC expected around 864,000 sole traders and landlords to be in Making Tax Digital from April. By the first deadline on 7 August, 436,000 had sent a quarterly update. That's about half. If you're in the other half, you haven't been fined, and the 7 November update can put you straight back on track, because it covers the first quarter too.

Here's how that works.

Updates add up from April

Every quarterly update covers the tax year so far, from 6 April. HMRC calls this cumulative. So the update due on 7 November covers 6 April to 5 October, all six months in one go.

That's the useful part if you missed August. You don't have to send the first quarter separately and then the second. Send a proper update from the start of the tax year and HMRC treats you as caught up.

If you chose calendar quarters in your software, your period runs to 30 September instead. The deadline is still 7 November.

What actually goes in it

Less than people expect. A quarterly update is totals, taken from your digital records:

  • What you earned from the business since 6 April
  • What you spent, split into the standard expense headings, like fuel, van costs, phone and insurance
  • Rent received and property costs, if you let a property

No tax is paid with it. HMRC shows you a rough estimate of the year's bill afterwards, which is worth a look, but the bill itself still comes with the tax return.

The hard bit isn't the form. It's having six months of records in software by early November. For a lot of drivers that means a door pocket full of fuel receipts, a few hundred WhatsApp photos of invoices, and a bank app nobody has looked at since June. Two evenings with the receipts in October is a lot easier than one panicked evening on 6 November.

Is there a penalty if I missed August?

No. HMRC isn't giving penalty points for late quarterly updates in the 2026/27 tax year, at all. That's this year only. From 6 April 2027 every missed update is a point, and four points costs £200.

There's a catch, though. You can't send your tax return for 2026/27 until all four quarterly updates are in, and that tax return is still due by 31 January 2028 with the usual penalties if it's late. So skipping the updates this year only saves you work until January 2028, when all of it lands at once.

Before the end of October

  1. Check you've got MTD software set up and linked to your HMRC account
  2. Get every receipt and invoice since 6 April into it, or at least the totals
  3. Connect your business bank account, if the software allows it, so you're not typing statements in by hand
  4. Send the update any time after 5 October. You don't have to wait for 7 November

If that list looks like a weekend you don't have, that's what our bookkeeping service is for. You send the photos, we keep the records and send the updates. Prices are on our pricing page, and there's more on how the whole system works on our Making Tax Digital page.

Sources: HMRC, 436,000 sole traders and landlords make their tax digital, Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: send quarterly updates and Penalties for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Correct as at September 2026.