7 August 2027:
the quarterly update deadline explained

7 August 2027 is two deadlines in one. It is the first quarterly update of the second Making Tax Digital year, so everyone who started in April 2026 sends their fifth update. And it is the very first deadline for the much larger group that joins in April 2027: sole traders and landlords whose qualifying income was more than £30,000 on their 2025 to 2026 tax return. HMRC puts that group at around 1,077,000 more people.

It is also the first deadline where being late costs something. HMRC's easement, no penalty points for late quarterly updates, was written for the 2026 to 2027 tax year. From 2027 to 2028 the points system applies. This page explains what the August 2027 update covers, how the points work, and what the new group needs to have in place.

“From 6 April 2027 onwards, points-based penalties will apply where taxpayers miss a quarterly deadline. Taxpayers receive one penalty point for each missed quarterly deadline. Once four points are accumulated, a £200 fixed penalty is charged.”

What the August 2027 update covers

The quarterly deadlines repeat every tax year, set out in the regulations as 7 August, 7 November and 7 February in the tax year and 7 May in the year after. GOV.UK does not publish a dated table for 2027 to 2028, but the dates follow from the same rule as 2026 to 2027:

The first update of a year is the one that fixes your update periods. GOV.UK says you cannot change the update periods you use for a tax year after you have sent a quarterly update. If you want calendar periods for 2027 to 2028, choose them before you send this one.

How penalty points work from 2027 to 2028

The points system for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax works like the one already used for VAT, with its own count:

• One point per missed deadline. For each quarterly update or tax return deadline you miss, you get a penalty point.
• One point per deadline, not per business. GOV.UK says you can only get one penalty point per deadline, even if you have more than one business and send more than one update late.
• £200 at 4 points. The threshold is 4 points. Reaching it brings a £200 penalty, and another £200 each time you miss a further deadline while you are at the threshold.
• Points expire. Below the threshold, HMRC removes each point automatically 24 months after the missed deadline.
• Clearing the threshold. Once at 4 points, you need to meet every deadline for 12 months, and have sent any outstanding updates and returns for the previous 24 months, before the points are cleared.
• Separate from VAT. If you are also VAT registered, your Making Tax Digital for Income Tax points are counted separately from your VAT points.

How quickly four missed deadlines add up

• Miss one update1 point
• Miss two updates2 points
• Miss three updates3 points
• Miss a fourth deadline4 points and £200

Four quarterly updates and a tax return make five deadlines a year, so a habit of sending updates a few days late reaches the threshold within a year. The points matter less than the £200 penalties that follow at the threshold, which keep coming for every further missed deadline until the record is clean.

There is no penalty-free first year for the April 2027 group

This is the point most likely to catch people out. The easement for 2026 to 2027 is written by tax year. GOV.UK's penalties guidance says there are no penalties for missing a quarterly update deadline for the 2026 to 2027 tax year. It does not describe the same easement for people who join in April 2027, and HMRC's August 2026 press release says points-based penalties apply where taxpayers miss a quarterly deadline from 6 April 2027 onwards.

So someone with qualifying income of £35,000 who joins on 6 April 2027 is on the points system from their first update. If HMRC announces an easement for that group, this page will say so; until it does, plan as if 7 August 2027 counts.

What the new group does get is the first-year rule on late payment. GOV.UK says that in your first year of the new penalties you have 30 days from the payment due date to pay in full or contact HMRC about a payment plan before late payment penalties start, and that after your first year this reduces to 15 days.

Who sends the August 2027 update

Two groups:

1. Everyone from the first year. Sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 on their 2024 to 2025 return, who have used Making Tax Digital since April 2026.
2. The £30,000 group. Sole traders and landlords registered for Self Assessment whose qualifying income on their 2025 to 2026 return was more than £30,000. It is "more than": qualifying income of exactly £30,000 is not in scope. HMRC says it will write to people it identifies, but if you do not receive a letter it is still your responsibility to check.

Qualifying income is your self-employment and property turnover added together, before expenses and before tax allowances such as the £1,000 trading or property allowance. Employment income, dividends, pensions and your share of a partnership's profit do not count. The page on the April 2027 threshold covers who is in and who is out in detail.

What the April 2027 group needs before 7 August

By the time the first update is due, three things should already be true:

• Signed up. To sign up, HMRC says you must be registered for Self Assessment and have submitted a tax return in the last two years.
• Software in place. HMRC does not provide software. Choose a product that covers your income types; the HMRC software directory shows what each one supports.
• Digital records from 6 April 2027. Every transaction from the start of the tax year needs to be in the software, or in a spreadsheet linked to bridging software.

Starting in April rather than July makes the first update a check rather than a scramble. The MTD requirement checker tells you whether your income puts you in, and from when.

If you miss 7 August 2027

A late update gets one penalty point. It is still owed: send it as soon as you can, because each quarterly period is its own obligation and the tax return cannot be submitted until every update for the year has gone. A single point below the threshold expires 24 months after the missed deadline, and costs nothing on its own. The cost comes if more follow.

If something genuinely stopped you from sending on time, GOV.UK's penalties guidance explains how to appeal a penalty and what counts as a reasonable excuse. The late filing penalty calculator shows what the older Self Assessment penalties look like by comparison, and the guide to HMRC late filing penalties explains the wider regime.

For landlords, sole traders and gig workers

Landlords. Joint owners each test their own share of the income against £30,000. A property let for £50,000 a year shared equally gives each owner qualifying income of £25,000, which on its own is below the threshold.

Sole traders with more than one trade. All your self-employment turnover counts towards the threshold, and each trade sends its own update. A missed deadline still earns only one point, however many of the updates are late.

Delivery, ride-hailing and platform workers. Turnover is your business income before your costs, such as fuel, vehicle hire and phone. A driver whose profit feels modest can still have turnover above £30,000 once those costs are added back, so check the earnings on your platform statements rather than your profit.

A routine that keeps the points away

The simplest protection against penalty points is to treat each update as a monthly job with a quarterly send, rather than a quarterly job done in the deadline week.

• Monthly: bring in the month's bank and card transactions, categorise them, and mark anything personal. Fifteen minutes a month is usually enough for a small business.
• When the period ends: check the year-to-date totals in your software, confirm the update period it is about to report, and send. You can send any time from the end of the period, so there is no need to wait for the deadline.
• Before each deadline: check your HMRC online account. It shows any overdue updates and your upcoming deadlines, which is the quickest way to confirm that what you sent arrived.

If you run more than one business, put every update in the same routine. A missed deadline earns one point however many of the updates were late, but the obligation for each business still has to be met.

After 7 August 2027

The second update of 2027 to 2028 is due by 7 November 2027. The year's tax return is due by 31 January 2029. Before that, the 2026 to 2027 tax return for the first group is due by 31 January 2028. The deadlines hub lists every date. If you are in the first group, the 7 May 2027 page covers the update that closed your first year, and the 7 November 2026 page covers catching up a missed update.