Catch up a missed
quarterly update

There are two ways to end up behind with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. You signed up, or HMRC signed you up, partway through the tax year and the earlier deadlines have already gone. Or you were in from the start and simply missed one. The fix is the same in both cases, and it is less work than it looks, because of the way quarterly updates are built.

This guide covers how to rebuild your records, the order to send overdue updates in, what being late costs this year and next, and how to avoid sending the wrong figures in the rush. The rules come from GOV.UK, HMRC's own manuals and the regulations, SI 2026/336.

“If you signed up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax partway through the tax year, you'll need to catch up with your record keeping by creating digital records from the start of the tax year.”

Why catching up is simpler than it sounds

Each quarterly update covers from the start of the tax year to the end of the update period, not just the previous three months. HMRC's manual gives the example directly: the second quarterly update contains all the information from periods 1 and 2, and the third contains everything from periods 1, 2 and 3.

That has two consequences for anyone behind. The work is in the records, not in the updates: once your transactions from the start of the year are in your software, every update is a summary your software builds from them. And there is nothing to reconcile between updates: the second update simply carries the first update's totals forward and adds three months.

The deadlines are the same every tax year and the same for standard and calendar periods. The fourth update's deadline falls in the following tax year.

Step 1: rebuild your records from the start of the tax year

HMRC's instruction to anyone who started late is to create digital records from the start of the tax year. A digital record is each transaction, with its date, amount and category, kept in compatible software or in a spreadsheet connected to bridging software.

The quickest sources, in order:

1. Your business bank account. Import its transactions from 6 April. If your bank only gives you PDF statements, a bank statement converter turns them into rows you can import.
2. Card and payment platform statements. Card readers, marketplaces and delivery platforms pay you net of their fees. Record the gross amount as income and the fees as expenses, using the platform's own statement.
3. Receipts for cash spending. Anything you paid in cash or from a personal account needs a record too. A receipt to spreadsheet tool speeds that up.

Then sort what you have imported. Mark personal spending so it stays out of the figures, give each business item an HMRC category, and look for duplicates: the same payment imported twice, or typed in and then also brought in by a bank feed. This is the step that decides whether your updates are right, so it deserves the most care.

Step 2: check your update periods before the first update

If the update you are catching up is your first of the tax year, you still have a choice to make: standard update periods ending on the 5th of the month, or calendar update periods ending on the last day of the month. The choice is made in your software, not with HMRC: software defaults to standard periods, and GOV.UK says you need to select calendar periods for each source of income before you send your first quarterly update. You cannot change the update periods you use for a tax year after you have sent a quarterly update. If you are not sure, standard versus calendar quarters explains the difference; most people stay on standard periods, which follow the tax year.

Step 3: send the overdue updates in date order

Once the records are in, send the earliest overdue update first. The regulations require an update for each quarterly update period, and each must be given no later than that period's deadline. Sending the second update does not make the first one disappear: GOV.UK does not say anywhere that a later update clears an earlier obligation, so treat each one as owed until HMRC shows it as received.

Take someone HMRC signed up in October 2026 whose online account shows the first update as overdue and the second as due:

• First update, 6 April to 5 July 2026. Overdue since 7 August. Send it as soon as the records for those months are sorted.
• Second update, 6 April to 5 October 2026. Due by 7 November. Send it next, once the records to 5 October are sorted.
• Third update, 6 April 2026 to 5 January 2027. Due by 7 February 2027, on the normal timetable from there.

Your HMRC online account shows any overdue quarterly updates and your upcoming deadlines, and good software shows the same list. Check it after each update you send: an update is only done when HMRC shows it as received.

Months each update covers, for someone catching up in autumn 2026

• First update (to 5 July 2026)3 months
• Second update (to 5 October 2026)6 months
• Third update (to 5 January 2027)9 months
• Fourth update (to 5 April 2027)12 months

If you run more than one business, each has its own updates. A sole trader who also lets a property sends one set for the trade and one for the property business, and both are due by the same dates.

What being late costs

In the 2026 to 2027 tax year: no points. HMRC will not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates during the 2026 to 2027 tax year. That covers 7 August 2026, 7 November 2026, 7 February 2027 and 7 May 2027. It is 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.

From the 2027 to 2028 tax year: points. Each missed quarterly update deadline earns one late submission penalty point. You can only get one point per deadline, even if you have more than one business and send more than one update late. At 4 points HMRC charges a £200 penalty, and another £200 each time you miss a further deadline while you are at the threshold.

Getting points removed. Below the threshold, each point is removed automatically 24 months after the missed deadline. At the threshold, HMRC's guidance says you need to send your quarterly updates and submit your tax return on time for 12 months, and send any outstanding updates and tax returns for the previous 24 months. The page on 7 August 2027, the first deadline where points apply, goes into this in more detail.

What is penalised this year. No points for updates does not mean nothing is penalised. Penalty points still apply for a late tax return for 2026 to 2027, and late payment penalties and interest apply to tax paid late.

Catching up without making it worse

A few mistakes come up again and again when people rush to catch up:

• Including transactions from after the period. The first update stops at 5 July (or 30 June). Anything later belongs in a later update. Good software filters this for you; check that yours does.
• Counting personal spending. Every unreviewed transaction is a guess about whether it is business. Sort them before you send.
• Doubling up. Importing the same statement twice, or a payment that arrives both through a bank feed and a manual entry, inflates both income and expenses.
• Skipping a quarter with nothing in it. GOV.UK says that if you have had no income or expenses in an update period, you must still send the update to tell HMRC.
• Resending an old update to fix it. You do not need to. HMRC's manual says there is no requirement to resubmit an earlier update: correct the record, and the next update carries the corrected total.

Before the tax return

The last step of the year is the tax return, which for 2026 to 2027 goes through your software by 31 January 2028. GOV.UK says you will need to send your quarterly updates before you are able to submit your tax return. So whatever else happens, every update for the year has to be in by then.

TapTax was built with catching up in mind. It imports your bank statements from the start of the tax year, sorts and categorises them, flags anything unreviewed or duplicated before you file, and lists the updates HMRC is still waiting for in date order, so you can work through them one at a time. If HMRC has just signed you up, start with what to do when HMRC signs you up; the full timetable is on the Making Tax Digital deadlines page, and the next one is 7 November 2026. The glossary entry on penalty points explains the system in brief, and quarterly update covers what each update contains.