How to Submit an MTD Quarterly Update: Step-by-Step for Landlords
To submit an MTD quarterly update, log in to your HMRC-compatible software, select the relevant property and quarter, review your categorised income and expense figures, and click submit. The software sends the data directly to HMRC via the MTD API. You do not pay tax at this stage. The first deadline for the 2026/27 tax year is 7 August 2026. HMRC's MTD for Income Tax guidance explains the full process.
How to submit an MTD quarterly update: what it actually is
A quarterly update is not a tax return. It is a summary of your property income and allowable expenses for a three-month period, sent directly to HMRC through MTD-compatible software. You submit four of them per tax year.
HMRC uses the figures to show you a running estimate of your likely tax liability. No tax is collected when you submit. Payment dates remain at 31 January and 31 July, unchanged from the existing Self Assessment timetable.
At the end of the tax year, you submit an End of Period Statement (EOPS) — which confirms your year-end figures and lets you make any adjustments — followed by a Final Declaration. That Final Declaration replaces your old SA100 and SA105 forms and finalises your income tax liability for the year.
The quarterly update itself covers income and expenses for your UK property business only. If you also have self-employment income, that is reported on a separate income source within the same MTD return. The two streams are kept distinct throughout the year.
For a full overview of MTD for Income Tax — including the sign-up process, compatible software, and how it fits into your overall tax obligations — read our complete MTD landlord guide.
Who needs to submit quarterly updates from April 2026?
From 6 April 2026, landlords whose gross qualifying income exceeds £50,000 per year must submit quarterly updates. Qualifying income is your gross rental receipts plus any gross self-employment turnover — combined, before any expenses are deducted.
The threshold is assessed on the preceding tax year. HMRC looks at your 2024/25 income — the year ending 5 April 2025 — to determine whether you must join MTD from 6 April 2026. Employment income taxed under PAYE does not count. Income earned inside a limited company does not count.
The threshold drops to £30,000 from 6 April 2027. If your qualifying income is currently between £30,000 and £50,000, you are not yet mandated but your compliance date is approaching. HMRC confirms the eligibility rules at gov.uk/guidance/check-if-youre-eligible-for-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax.
Threshold timetable
- 6 April 2026: Qualifying income above £50,000 — mandatory
- 6 April 2027: Qualifying income above £30,000 — mandatory
- Future date TBC: Qualifying income above £20,000 — no confirmed date as of April 2026
Not sure whether you are above the threshold? Use our landlord tax calculator to estimate your qualifying income and check your MTD position in under two minutes.
What you need before you start
Before you sit down to submit your first quarterly update, make sure you have three things in place.
An active HMRC MTD enrolment
You cannot submit quarterly updates unless you have signed up for MTD for Income Tax through your software provider or directly via HMRC's Government Gateway. Sign-up requires your National Insurance number, Government Gateway login, and your property income start date. HMRC can take up to ten working days to process enrolment, so do not leave it until the week before your first deadline.
HMRC-compatible software
You must use software that connects directly to HMRC's MTD for Income Tax API. You cannot submit quarterly updates through your personal tax account or by post. HMRC maintains a list of compatible products at gov.uk/guidance/use-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax. LandlordTaxAi is designed specifically for landlords, with built-in bank feed import, SA105 categorisation, and one-click quarterly submission.
Digital records for the quarter
MTD requires digital records — not paper spreadsheets. Every income and expense transaction must be recorded in a digital format, either directly in your MTD software or in a linked digital tool with a maintained digital link to your software. Rekeying totals from a paper cashbook is not permitted. Bank feed import is the most reliable approach and minimises the risk of transcription errors.
How to submit an MTD quarterly update — 8 steps
Follow these eight steps in order. The first time through will take longer as you familiarise yourself with your software. Subsequent quarters typically take under 30 minutes if your records are kept up to date.
Step 1: Gather your income and expense records for the quarter
Collect your bank statements, rent receipts, mortgage interest statements, and all expense invoices for the three-month period. Check that every transaction has a corresponding record — either a bank entry or a physical receipt. If your software uses a bank feed, log in and check that all transactions have been imported correctly. Reconcile the imported feed against your bank statement line by line. Any missing or duplicate transactions must be resolved before you proceed. This step is the foundation of an accurate submission.
Step 2: Categorise transactions against SA105 property categories
Sort each transaction into the correct SA105 income or expense category. Income categories include rent received, premiums from leases, and any other property income. Expense categories include repairs and maintenance, finance costs (mortgage interest), legal and professional fees, costs of services, travel costs, and other allowable expenses. Accurate categorisation at this stage avoids the need for amendments after submission. If your software uses AI categorisation, review every suggestion — AI tools are accurate for routine transactions but may misclassify unusual items such as insurance claims or legal settlements.
Step 3: Log in to your MTD software
Open your HMRC-compatible MTD software and sign in with your credentials. Before proceeding, check that your HMRC authorisation is still active. Most software requires you to re-authorise your Government Gateway connection every 18 months. You will usually see an alert in the software if the authorisation has expired. Re-authorise through the software's settings before you attempt to submit — a lapsed connection will cause the submission to fail at the final step, which is frustrating when you have spent time preparing your figures.
Step 4: Select the property and the quarter
In your software, navigate to the quarterly submission section. If you own more than one property, select the correct property. If you have a portfolio of properties reported as a single UK property business — which is the default treatment for residential landlords — you will be entering combined figures for the whole portfolio rather than one property at a time. Choose the quarter you are submitting for and confirm that the period dates are correct. For Quarter 1 of the 2026/27 tax year, the period is 6 April 2026 to 5 July 2026.
Step 5: Review the auto-categorised figures
If your software has pre-populated the income and expense totals from your bank feed or transaction records, review each category carefully. Do not simply accept the totals at face value. Common errors at this stage include repairs being categorised as capital improvements (which are not deductible in the quarterly update), personal expenditure appearing in business expense categories, and interest charges mixed in with capital repayments. Each of these will either overstate or understate your deductible expenses and produce an inaccurate submission.
Step 6: Check your totals against your records
Add up your gross rental income from your rent schedule or rent book and compare it to the income figure your software is showing. Do the same for each expense category — add up all your repair invoices and check them against the repairs total in the software. Any discrepancy greater than a few pence should be investigated and corrected before you submit. The purpose of this cross-check is to catch errors that automated categorisation may have introduced. It takes five to ten minutes and is worth doing every quarter.
Step 7: Submit to HMRC
Once you are satisfied that the figures are accurate, click the submit button in your software. The software sends the data directly to HMRC via the MTD for Income Tax API. The submission usually completes within a few seconds. Once submitted, HMRC updates your Business Tax Account with the new figures. Your software will display a confirmation screen with a submission reference number and the date and time of submission. Note that submission is not reversible in the same way as deleting a draft — corrections require a formal amendment through the software.
Step 8: Save your submission confirmation
After a successful submission, save or print the confirmation screen. It should show your submission reference number, the period covered, the income and expense totals submitted, and the timestamp. Store this confirmation alongside your transaction records for the quarter. HMRC recommends keeping MTD records for at least five years from the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year. For the 2026/27 tax year, that means keeping records until at least 31 January 2033.
The four quarterly deadlines for 2026/27
Missing a quarterly deadline earns one penalty point under HMRC's points-based system. Four points in the same obligation period triggers a £200 financial penalty. The deadlines for the 2026/27 tax year are:
| Quarter | Period covered | Submission deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 6 April – 5 July 2026 | 7 August 2026 |
| Q2 | 6 July – 5 October 2026 | 7 November 2026 |
| Q3 | 6 October 2026 – 5 January 2027 | 7 February 2027 |
| Q4 | 6 January – 5 April 2027 | 7 May 2027 |
After the four quarterly updates, you must submit an End of Period Statement (EOPS) and then a Final Declaration. Both are due by 31 January 2028 for the 2026/27 tax year. The Final Declaration is the step that triggers your tax bill calculation and replaces the old SA100 Self Assessment return.
Note that these deadlines use the standard tax-year quarter periods (beginning 6th of the month). HMRC also permits an alternative quarterly period arrangement where quarters run from the 1st of the month — which aligns better with calendar-month bank statements. Check your software settings if you want to use this option.
Never miss a quarterly deadline
See all four 2026/27 deadlines, the EOPS date, and the Final Declaration deadline on one page — with a free reminder service.
View the full MTD deadline calendarCommon mistakes to avoid
Most errors in quarterly updates fall into one of four categories. Being aware of them before your first submission saves time and avoids the need for amendments.
Submitting income without expenses
Some landlords — particularly those new to MTD — submit their rental income figures but leave the expense categories blank, planning to add expenses at the year-end EOPS stage. This is permitted technically but gives HMRC an inflated view of your profits throughout the year. More importantly, it produces an inaccurate running tax estimate that can cause confusion. Report both income and expenses every quarter.
Breaking the digital link requirement
MTD requires a continuous digital link between your records and your submission software. You cannot retype a total from a paper spreadsheet into your MTD software — that breaks the digital link. If you use a spreadsheet to track transactions, it must be connected to your MTD software via a recognised bridging mechanism. The safest approach is to record transactions directly in your MTD software or import them via a bank feed.
Using your personal tax account instead of MTD software
Your HMRC personal tax account and your Business Tax Account are not MTD submission tools. You cannot file quarterly updates through the HMRC website directly. The submission must go through your MTD-compatible software's API connection. Logging into HMRC's website and entering figures manually is not a valid MTD submission and will not be recorded as such.
Confusing the quarterly update with the Final Declaration
Quarterly updates do not replace your tax return — they are preparatory submissions. Your tax liability is only finalised when you submit the Final Declaration by 31 January following the end of the tax year. Some landlords make quarterly submissions and then assume they have no further obligation. They do — the EOPS and Final Declaration are still required.
Can I correct a quarterly update after submission?
Yes. If you discover an error in a submitted quarterly update — for example, a transaction in the wrong category, or a figure entered incorrectly — you can submit an amended update through your software. Most MTD software allows you to go back to a submitted quarter, make corrections, and resubmit. The amended figures replace the original submission in HMRC's systems.
Corrections do not attract a penalty unless the error is found to be deliberate or negligent. Routine amendments — catching a miscategorised repair or correcting a transposed figure — are a normal part of the MTD process and HMRC expects some of them, particularly in the first year.
You can also make year-end adjustments through the End of Period Statement if a correction is not time-sensitive. For example, if you realise in March that a repair in Quarter 1 was assigned to the wrong category, you can correct it at the EOPS stage rather than going back to amend the original quarterly submission. However, keeping your quarterly figures accurate from the outset is always preferable.
What happens if I miss a quarterly deadline?
HMRC operates a points-based penalty system for late MTD submissions. Each missed quarterly deadline adds one penalty point to your account. Once you accumulate four points — the threshold for quarterly filers — HMRC issues a £200 financial penalty. Every subsequent late submission beyond the threshold attracts a further £200 penalty.
Penalty points expire after 24 months of full compliance, provided you have submitted all returns on time during that period. HMRC sets out the full rules at gov.uk/guidance/check-if-youre-eligible-for-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax.
The points system is separate from late-payment penalties. If you submit on time but pay your tax bill late, different penalty rules apply based on the number of days late. The two systems are independent. Being up to date with your quarterly submissions does not protect you from late-payment penalties if you miss the 31 January payment deadline.
If you receive a penalty point and believe it was issued in error — for example, because you did submit on time and the system failed to record it — you can appeal through HMRC's formal appeals process. Keep your submission confirmation references as evidence.
Frequently asked questions
Is a quarterly update the same as a tax return?
No. A quarterly update is a summary of your income and expenses for the three-month period. It does not calculate or collect tax. Your Final Declaration — due 31 January each year — is the document that finalises your tax liability and replaces the old Self Assessment return.
Do I need to pay tax after each quarterly update?
No. Quarterly updates contain figures only. HMRC uses them to show a running estimate of your liability, but no payment is triggered. Tax payment dates remain unchanged: 31 January for your balancing payment and first payment on account, and 31 July for your second payment on account.
Can I submit quarterly updates manually without software?
No. HMRC requires you to use MTD-compatible software with a direct API link to their systems. You cannot submit quarterly updates through your personal tax account or by post. HMRC publishes a list of compatible software at gov.uk/guidance/find-software-thats-compatible-with-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax.
What income categories do I need to separate?
You must report figures using the SA105 property income categories: rent received, premiums from leases, reverse premiums, and any other property income. On the expense side you separate: repairs and maintenance, finance costs, legal and professional fees, costs of services, travel costs, and other allowable property expenses.
Can my accountant submit on my behalf?
Yes. You can authorise an agent — your accountant or tax adviser — to submit quarterly updates on your behalf through their agent credentials. They must be registered with HMRC as an agent and linked to your MTD account. You remain legally responsible for the accuracy of the figures submitted.
What if I have no income in a quarter — do I still need to submit?
Yes. Once you are enrolled in MTD, you must submit a return for every quarter, even if your income was nil. A nil return takes a few minutes to complete. Failing to submit — even with no income — earns a penalty point under HMRC's points-based system.
How do I know HMRC received my quarterly update?
Your MTD software will display a submission reference number and a confirmation timestamp immediately after a successful submission. HMRC also updates your Business Tax Account to reflect the submission. Keep the confirmation screen or PDF that your software generates as your record.
Can I submit a quarterly update early?
Yes. You can submit at any point once the quarter has ended. Many landlords submit within a few days of the quarter closing while their records are fresh. Early submission does not affect the deadline for the following quarter or any tax payment dates.
LandlordTaxAi Editorial Team
The LandlordTaxAi editorial team writes about UK landlord tax, HMRC compliance, and Making Tax Digital. Our content is reviewed against current HMRC guidance and updated when legislation changes. We are operated by LandlordTaxAi, United Kingdom. Follow us on LinkedIn.
Last reviewed: 19 April 2026 · This article is informational only and does not constitute tax advice. Consult a qualified accountant for advice specific to your circumstances.