Key dates at a glance

All of the MTD dates in one place. Bookmark this one.

Personal timeline, are you in from April 2026?

If you are over the £50,000 threshold based on your 2024-25 return:

The quarterly pattern (standard quarters)

These are the default dates. The tax year starts on 6 April, and each quarter covers three months. The deadline to file each update is one month after the end of the quarter period.

This pattern repeats every tax year.

Optional calendar quarters

If you'd rather your quarters ended on the last day of the month (some people find this tidier if they also do VAT or monthly accounting), you can elect calendar quarters in your software before you file your first quarterly update of the tax year. The choice lasts for the whole tax year; you can't switch mid-year.

For tax year 2026-27 onwards (which is everyone mandated from April 2026):

The tax year itself still runs 6 April – 5 April, so there's a small five-day overlap at the start of Q1 (1–5 April) that technically belongs to the previous tax year. Any software that supports calendar quarters handles this alignment at year-end for you, it shows up in the final declaration rather than a quarterly update.

If that felt fiddly: most sole traders and landlords are better off sticking with standard quarters and ignoring this option. It exists mainly for businesses with month-end accounting habits.

Phased rollout timeline

Within each business year

If you have both self-employment and property income, you submit quarterly updates for each business separately:

• Sole trader + one landlord = 8 updates per year (4 × sole trade, 4 × property).
• Two self-employed trades = 8 updates per year (4 × each).
• A landlord with several rental properties counts as one property business, so that's still only 4 updates. (See For landlords.)

All of them share the same deadlines, 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, so in practice you submit them in one sitting.

31 January stays the same

31 January. The final declaration deadline and the tax payment deadline are still 31 January following the end of the tax year. MTD doesn't touch either.

The first-year easement

• For late payment, the first-year easement is different: you have 30 days (not 15) from the payment due date to pay or set up a Time to Pay arrangement before late-payment penalties start.
• The final declaration for 2026-27 (due 31 January 2028) is not covered by the quarterly easement, don't be late on that one.

See Penalties for the full picture.

A printable mini-calendar for 2026-27

2026
 Apr 06  Tax year 2026-27 begins. Digital records from here.
 Aug 07  Q1 quarterly update
 Nov 07  Q2 quarterly update

2027
 Feb 07  Q3 quarterly update
 Apr 05  Tax year 2026-27 ends
 May 07  Q4 quarterly update

2028
 Jan 31  Final declaration for 2026-27 + pay tax + pay NI

Sources

• Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, Send quarterly updates (GOV.UK)
• MTD for Income Tax dates you need to know (GOV.UK campaign)
• HMRC Developer Hub, Making updates during the tax year