Missed the 7 August MTD deadline? Your 7 November update fixes it

Published 17 August 2026.

The first Making Tax Digital quarterly update was due on 7 August 2026. That date has gone. If you missed it, the position is a good deal better than it looks, and the reason is the way these updates are built rather than any concession from HMRC.

The next deadline is 7 November 2026

The second quarterly update of 2026-27 covers 6 July to 5 October 2026 and is due by 7 November 2026. The rest of the year runs:

Update	Period ends	Deadline
First	5 July 2026	7 August 2026 (passed)
Second	5 October 2026	7 November 2026
Third	5 January 2027	7 February 2027
Fourth	5 April 2027	7 May 2027

Your tax return for 2026-27 then goes to HMRC straight from your MTD software by 31 January 2028.

Why the 7 November update clears a missed 7 August

This is the part almost nobody explains, and it is the whole answer if you are behind.

Quarterly updates are cumulative. Every period starts on 6 April, so each update is a running year-to-date total rather than a standalone three-month snapshot. Your second update does not cover July to October in isolation, it covers 6 April to 5 October.

HMRC's own service guidance is explicit about what follows: each update invalidates the previous submission. A later submission supersedes the earlier one, and an obligation counts as met once an update's end date reaches or passes the end of that quarter.

In practice, filing your cumulative 6 April to 5 October figures in November also satisfies the first-quarter obligation you missed. There is no separate catch-up filing, no amendment process, and nothing to resubmit for the quarter you skipped.

The same mechanism handles mistakes. If you filed on time but got a figure wrong, or found an invoice or an expense afterwards, you do not go back and correct the first update. You put the right cumulative number in the next one and the running total puts it right.

Penalties: what is waived and what is not

No late submission penalty points apply to quarterly updates during the first year of MTD for Income Tax. HMRC confirmed this as the 7 August deadline approached. From the second year onwards, a points-based penalty applies each time a quarterly deadline is missed.

Two things that grace period does not cover, and they are the expensive ones:

• Late tax returns. Penalties still apply in full.
• Late payments. Late payment interest still runs, currently 7.75%, in force since 9 January 2026 and set at the Bank of England base rate plus 4%.

So the realistic cost of missing 7 August is nothing, provided you still pay what you owe on time and file your return. The cost of treating the whole regime as optional for a year is not nothing.

Check whether it applies to you at all

Around 864,000 sole traders and landlords are in this first wave, and the test is misread constantly.

You are in scope from April 2026 if your qualifying income was over £50,000 on your 2024-25 Self Assessment return. Two details matter:

• It is the 2024-25 return that decides it, not your current year. HMRC looked at the return filed by 31 January 2026 and wrote to those affected.
• Qualifying income is gross, before expenses. It is turnover, not profit. Self-employment and property income are added together for the test, so plenty of freelancers with profits well under £50,000 are inside the rules.

Foreign property income does not count towards it, and neither does self-employment income you have not declared on a UK Self Assessment return.

If no letter ever arrived and you think one should have, do not assume you are outside the rules. Check the return rather than the assumption.

It widens twice more

• April 2027: the threshold drops to £30,000, based on your 2025-26 return.
• April 2028: it drops again to £20,000, based on your 2026-27 return.

If this year missed you, there is a fair chance the next one does not.

What to do before 7 November

1. Get April to October into your software. The cumulative design only rescues you if the records exist, it does not invent them.
2. Confirm your software is MTD-compatible and actually connected to HMRC, rather than simply being accounting software you happen to like.
3. File the cumulative update by 7 November, and the missed first quarter goes with it.
4. Keep payment and return deadlines separate in your head. Those carry real penalties. The quarterly updates do not, this year.

For the earlier deadlines and the payment on account position, see the 7 August MTD update and 31 July payment on account. For the wider picture on record-keeping, allowable expenses and software, see our guide to managing your freelance finances and taxes, and if you are still getting set up, the freelance startup checklist.

This is general information, not tax advice. Figures and deadlines are correct as at 17 August 2026. Check GOV.UK or speak to an accountant about your own position.

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