MTD quarterly updates: deadlines, how they work, and penalties

Instead of one Self Assessment return after the year ends, you send four quarterly updates through the year and submit one final declaration to close it off. This page is the definitive answer to the two questions that come up most: when is each update due, and what actually happens if you miss one.

Here are the dates first, because that is what most people came for.

The MTD quarterly update deadlines

Each quarterly update is due by the 7th of the second month after the quarter closes. The period covered always starts on 6 April, because the updates are cumulative (more on that below). Then, after the tax year ends, your final declaration is due by 31 January. For the 2026/27 tax year, that final declaration is due by 31 January 2028, the same date your Self Assessment return used to fall on.

If you're a first-wave landlord reading this in 2026, the next live deadline you're working towards is 7 August, your Q1 update covering 6 April to 5 July.

These are the standard dates for the standard 6 April to 5 April tax year, which is what almost every landlord uses. If you've told HMRC you use calendar quarters instead, your dates shift, but the cumulative principle is the same.

How quarterly updates actually work

This is the part that trips almost everyone up, so it's worth getting clear before anything else.

A quarterly update is cumulative. Every update runs from 6 April and restates the year to date. It is not four separate three-month slices that you bolt together at the end. Your Q1 update covers 6 April to 5 July. Your Q2 update covers 6 April to 5 October, which means it includes the Q1 figures again, brought up to date with everything since. Q3 covers 6 April to 5 January. Q4 covers the whole year, 6 April to 5 April.

So by the time you send your fourth update, you've reported the full year as you went, one widening picture rather than four disconnected returns. If you made a slip in an earlier quarter, you don't file a correction; the next cumulative update simply restates the corrected total. That is the single most misunderstood thing about MTD, and once it clicks the rest gets a lot easier.

What an update is not: it isn't a tax bill, it isn't a final figure, and it isn't a moment where HMRC checks your maths. It's a running total. You're keeping HMRC's picture of your year current, nothing more.

What you actually send (and what you don't)

Here's the fear we hear most on calls, so let's deal with it head on: no, you do not upload your bank statements or your receipts to HMRC every quarter.

What you send is the totals: your property income and your allowable expenses for the period, taken from your digital records. Summary figures, by category. That's it. The receipts, the statements, the invoices stay in your own records as the evidence behind those totals. HMRC wants the numbers, not the paperwork, and the system is built around totals flowing straight from your software.

A quarterly update is also closer to an estimate than a finished return. You're not expected to reconcile, claim every relief, or get the figures perfect four times a year. You send your running totals as they stand, and you fix the detail later. The adjustments, reliefs, allowances and anything that sits outside the quarterly figures all get sorted at the final declaration. So if you've not yet decided how to treat a particular cost, or you're waiting on a year-end figure, that's fine. The quarter is for the broad picture; the year-end is for getting it exactly right.

In short: four times a year you send totals of income and expenses from your records. You never send the records themselves.

The final declaration: closing the year off

After the tax year ends, you submit one final declaration. This is where the year gets finished properly. You confirm your figures, add anything that sits outside the quarterly updates (reliefs, allowances, adjustments, other sources of income such as employment, dividends or savings interest), and submit.

The final declaration replaces the Self Assessment tax return for everyone inside MTD. You're not doing both. One final declaration does the job the return used to do, and it's due on the same date: 31 January after the tax year. For 2026/27 that's 31 January 2028.

You may have read about an "end of period statement" or EOPS as a separate step. That no longer exists. There is no extra reconciliation form between your quarterly updates and your final declaration. Four updates through the year, one declaration to close it, and you're done.

Penalties: what happens if you're late

Late filing under MTD is handled by a points-based system, not an instant fine for a single slip.

Here's how the points work. Each time you miss a quarterly update or final declaration deadline, you pick up one penalty point. Points accumulate. When you reach four points, you get a £200 penalty. After that, while you're sitting at the threshold, each further late submission triggers another £200. The points aren't permanent: after a period of submitting everything on time, they clear, so the system is designed to bring you back on track rather than to punish one bad month.

Now the part that should take the pressure off. For the first wave, 2026/27 is being treated as penalty-free for late quarterly updates while everyone settles into the new rhythm. That isn't a reason to ignore the dates, it's the opposite. You've been handed a year where the cost of learning the routine is low. The smart move is to use it: send each update on time this year, get the rhythm into your calendar, and the deadlines become habit long before they carry a charge.

Think of it as building the habit, not bracing for a fine. Send on time four times this year and 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May stop being dates you worry about.

Quarterly updates do not mean paying tax four times a year

This is the reassurance worth stating plainly, because the phrase "quarterly tax returns" makes people assume quarterly tax bills. It doesn't work that way.

MTD changes how you report, not how or when you pay. Your payments on account stay exactly where they were: due 31 January and 31 July, with any balancing payment due the following 31 January. Sending four quarterly updates does not move your tax bill, split it, or bring it forward. The updates keep HMRC's record current; the bill is still worked out and paid on the schedule you already know.

So if anyone tells you MTD means paying tax every quarter, they've confused reporting with paying. You report more often. You pay on the same dates as always.

Meet Oliver: how a year of updates actually plays out

Oliver has two rental flats and his gross rental income is comfortably over £50,000, so he's in the first wave for 2026/27.

In July, his Q1 update is due by 7 August. His software has been adding up the rent received and his costs since 6 April, so the update is a quick review of the totals and a send. Done in a few minutes.

By October, his Q2 update (due 7 November) covers 6 April to 5 October. It includes the rent from the first quarter again, now brought up to date with the months since. Oliver doesn't re-enter anything, the running total just widens.

In January he's busy, but the Q3 update (due 7 February) is the same quick check. By the time his Q4 update is due on 7 May, his software has reported the whole year cumulatively.

Then, before 31 January 2028, Oliver submits his final declaration: confirms the figures, adds the bits that sat outside the quarters, and closes off 2026/27. His tax is still paid on 31 January and 31 July as it always was. Across the whole year he sent four short updates and made one submission, and at no point did he upload a single bank statement.

Make the quarters painless

Done by hand four times a year, this is real work. The point of MTD-compatible software is to take the totals you're already keeping and send them straight to HMRC, so a quarterly update is a quick review rather than a project. Provestor keeps your property figures current through the year and sends your updates on the dates above, turning four deadlines into four short check-ins.

If you've not registered yet, start with how to register for MTD. For step-by-step help once you're in the app, see our guide to sending a quarterly update. And for the full picture of how MTD fits together, including who's affected and what counts toward the threshold, start with Making Tax Digital for landlords.