7 November 2026:
the quarterly update deadline explained

7 November 2026 is the second deadline of the first year of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Sole traders and landlords whose qualifying income was more than £50,000 on their 2024 to 2025 tax return have been keeping digital records since April, and the update due on 7 November is the one that carries their figures from the start of the tax year to the end of the second update period.

For some people it is routine: they sent their first update in August and this is the second of four. For others it is the first they will send. HMRC began signing people up itself from September 2026, and many of them have not sent anything yet. This page explains what the deadline covers, who has to meet it, and what to do in each of those situations, with every rule taken from GOV.UK.

“Their next milestone is the second quarterly update due on 7 November.”

What is due on 7 November 2026

A quarterly update is a summary of your business income and expenses that your software sends to HMRC. You do not fill in a form: compatible software builds the update from the digital records you keep and shows it to you to check before you send it. GOV.UK's 2026 to 2027 timetable lists four updates and then the tax return:

You send one update for each business you run. A sole trader with one trade sends one. A sole trader who also lets a property sends one for the trade and one for the property business, and each is due by the same date. Partnerships are not part of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax yet: GOV.UK says HMRC will set out the timeline for them at a later date.

The update is due by the end of 7 November. You can send it any time from the end of the update period, which is 5 October on standard periods, up to the deadline. GOV.UK also allows an update to be sent up to 10 days before the end of its period if you do not expect to record any more transactions in it.

The dates it covers

Every quarterly update covers the tax year to date. HMRC's guidance puts it plainly: each update covers from the start of the tax year to the end of the update period, not just the previous three months. That is why the second update is the one that matters most for anyone who started late: it contains everything from April onwards.

Standard update periods follow the tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April. Calendar update periods run from 1 April to 31 March and end on the last day of a month, which suits people whose bookkeeping already runs by calendar month. Both use the same deadline. The three months the obligation itself relates to are 6 July to 5 October 2026 on standard periods, or 1 July to 30 September on calendar ones, but the figures your software sends run from the start of the year.

There is one rule to check before you send anything this year. GOV.UK says you cannot change the update periods you use for a tax year after you have sent a quarterly update. If the 7 November update is your first for 2026 to 2027, the choice you have when you send it is the one you keep until April. The guide on standard and calendar quarters sets out the difference in more detail.

Because the figures are cumulative, a correction is simple. If you spot a mistake in what you sent in August, you fix the record and the 7 November update carries the corrected total. HMRC's manual on corrections says there is no requirement to resubmit an earlier update; corrections go in by the day the next update is due.

Who has to send it

The 7 November 2026 deadline applies to sole traders and landlords who must use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax for 2026 to 2027. That is everyone registered for Self Assessment with income from self-employment, property or both, whose qualifying income on their 2024 to 2025 tax return was more than £50,000. Qualifying income is your turnover from self-employment and property added together, before expenses. A landlord who receives £25,000 in rent and also earns £27,000 from a trade has qualifying income of £52,000, which is GOV.UK's own example.

Some income does not count: employment income taxed through PAYE, your share of a partnership's profit, dividends, the State Pension and private pensions. Joint property owners count only their share. HMRC's example is a property earning £50,000 shared equally between two owners, which gives each owner qualifying income of £25,000.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax in its first year

• Sole traders and landlords in scope for 2026-27864,000+
• Signed up by 12 August 2026570,000+
• First quarterly update sent by 12 August 2026436,000+

The gap between those numbers is the reason this deadline matters. HMRC said more than 864,000 sole traders and landlords were in scope, and by 12 August more than 436,000 had sent their first update. Everyone in scope who had not signed up by the autumn is now being signed up by HMRC itself.

People who chose to join early, as volunteers, send updates by the same dates. GOV.UK says that while you are volunteering you will not get penalties for missing quarterly update deadlines.

If HMRC has just signed you up

From September 2026, HMRC began signing up people who should be using Making Tax Digital for 2026 to 2027 but had not done so, in stages over the coming months. If that is you, HMRC will have contacted you to confirm it, through your HMRC online services or by post. HMRC does not provide software, so the first job is to choose some.

HMRC's guidance for people it has signed up sets out five steps: access HMRC online services, check and confirm the records HMRC holds are correct, get compatible software, catch up on digital records and quarterly updates, and use HMRC's guide to the service. On the catch-up, it asks you to create digital records from the start of the tax year and to send your overdue quarterly update as soon as possible. Your HMRC online account shows any overdue updates and your upcoming deadlines.

In practice that means two updates for most people signed up this autumn: the first, for the period that ended on 5 July, which is already overdue, and the second, due by 7 November. Send the overdue one first. Both are built from the same records, and the second simply carries the totals on to 5 October.

If your self-employment or property income stopped before 6 April 2026, HMRC's guidance says you will not need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, but you still need to submit your tax return for 2025 to 2026. If HMRC has signed you up and you do not think you need to use the service, it asks you to contact Self Assessment general enquiries.

What goes into the update

Your software builds the update from your digital records. For a self-employed business that means your income and your allowable expenses, sorted into HMRC's categories, such as cost of goods, travel, premises costs, admin costs and professional fees. For a property business it means rent and other property income, and property expenses. You review the totals, correct anything that is wrong at the record level, and then send.

Digital records are the individual transactions, each with its date, amount and category, kept in compatible software or in a spreadsheet linked to bridging software. If you have been keeping a paper book or a spreadsheet without bridging, the quickest route is usually to bring your bank transactions in from the start of the tax year and then categorise them. A bank statement converter turns a PDF statement into rows you can import.

A few checks before sending save trouble later:

• Business or personal. Remove anything personal from the business figures before you send.
• Duplicates. If you imported the same statement twice, or typed in a payment your bank feed also brought in, delete the copy.
• Dates. Only transactions up to 5 October (or 30 September) belong in this update; anything after it goes in the next.
• Nothing earned is still an update. GOV.UK says that if you have had no income or expenses in the period, you must still send the update to tell HMRC.

If you miss 7 November 2026

HMRC has said it will not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates during the 2026 to 2027 tax year. That covers 7 November 2026, 7 February 2027 and 7 May 2027 as well as the August deadline that has already passed. It is a first-year easement written for the tax year, not for each person's first year: GOV.UK does not describe the same easement for people who join in April 2027.

No points does not mean the update can be skipped. The regulations require an update for each quarterly update period, and HMRC's guidance is clear that you need to send your quarterly updates before you are able to submit your tax return. Penalty points still apply for late tax returns, and late payment penalties and interest still apply to tax paid late.

From the 2027 to 2028 tax year the points system applies to quarterly updates: one point for each missed deadline, and a £200 penalty once you reach 4 points. The page on the 7 August 2027 deadline explains how that works.

For landlords, sole traders and gig workers

Sole traders. One update per trade. If you run two businesses, each has its own update. Your software can show the figures for each separately before you send.

Landlords. UK property and foreign property are separate businesses with separate updates. For jointly let property GOV.UK lets you choose to send property income and expenses, or property income only, in your quarterly updates; if you leave the expenses out, you report them after the end of the year by resending your fourth update before you submit your tax return. You only need digital records for your share of a jointly let property.

Delivery and ride-hailing drivers. Work from the platform's own statement rather than what reaches your bank: it shows what you earned, what the platform deducted and any tips, and your records need each of those. If you claim simplified mileage, your software also needs your business miles for the period.

Construction workers under CIS. Record the gross amount a contractor pays you, before their deduction, as your income. The deduction is tax you have already paid, so keep each payment and deduction statement with your records.

After 7 November

The third update of the year is due by 7 February 2027 and covers 6 April 2026 to 5 January 2027. Before that, on 31 January 2027, comes the Self Assessment return for 2025 to 2026, which you file the usual way even if you joined Making Tax Digital in April; the page on 31 January 2027 explains why. The full list is on the Making Tax Digital deadlines hub.

If you are not sure whether Making Tax Digital applies to you, the MTD requirement checker works it out from your income, and the quarterly planner helps you put money aside for the tax each update implies. The HMRC software directory lists the products HMRC recognises, with what each one covers. The glossary entry on quarterly updates and the guide to sole trader quarterly submissions go into the mechanics in more depth.