Your MTD quarterly update: a checklist for 7 November

The first MTD quarterly update was due by 7 August 2026. If it went in on time and without drama, good. A lot of them did not.

If you missed it, or you got it filed but only just, this is the piece for you. Below is what to do about a missed or messy first quarter, and then the countdown that gets the next one, due 7 November 2026, filed calmly instead of at midnight.

The submission itself is short, and takes 15 to 20 minutes once you are set up. The bad news is the same as it was in July: setup, signup and getting your records ready take longer than the filing does. That is where the time goes, and that is what to start on now rather than in the final week of October.

For the wider deadline calendar, see the MTD deadline calendar 2026-2028.

If you missed the 7 August deadline

Take the temperature down first. This is fixable, and the order matters.

1. Check you are actually registered. The most common reason a first submission never happened is that the software connection was mistaken for the registration. They are two separate steps. Signing up for MTD ITSA happens at GOV.UK; connecting your software to your Government Gateway account is a different action. Without the registration, the submission cannot go through at all.

2. File the missed update as soon as you can. A late quarterly update is still a quarterly update. There is no benefit whatsoever in waiting, and the sooner it is in, the sooner the record is straight.

3. Understand what a missed deadline actually costs. You earn one penalty point. Four points equals a £200 penalty for quarterly filers. HMRC has indicated leniency in the early period, but the rules are real. One missed quarter is not a crisis. A pattern of them is.

4. Do not panic about the numbers. Quarterly updates are explicitly allowed to be revised, either in a later quarterly update or at the final declaration. If you filed something rushed on 6 or 7 August and you are not confident in it, it can be corrected. The final position is set at the year-end final declaration, not at the quarter.

5. Fix the cause, not just the symptom. If the first quarter was a scramble, the reason is almost always one of three things: records not kept up through the quarter, income sources set up wrongly in the software, or the registration and connection not properly finished. Sort whichever it was in September, not in the first week of November.

What you are submitting

The Q2 quarterly update covers 6 July 2026 to 5 October 2026. The deadline is 7 November 2026, one month and seven days after the period closes. The quarterly cycle then runs 7 February and 7 May, on the same pattern.

The submission itself is a summary of:

Gross income (rents, sales, fees, takings) by income source
Allowable expenses by category

It is not a precise tax calculation. HMRC accepts that the figures may need correcting at the final declaration. But the figures must be accurate to the records you keep, and the records must be in HMRC-recognised software.

30 days out: preparation

For the November deadline, that is the first week of October. The work here is making sure the records are clean before you generate the quarterly figures.

Confirm software and HMRC connection.

Software is on HMRC’s recognised MTD ITSA list.
Software is connected to your Government Gateway account.
You have signed up for MTD ITSA at GOV.UK. This is separate from connecting software.

Bring records up to date.

All bank transactions for the quarter reconciled.
All sales and rent receipts entered.
All supplier and expense invoices entered.
Receipts captured digitally (AutoEntry, Dext, or in-software receipt capture).

Spot-check a sample of transactions.

Pull 10 random transactions from the period.
Confirm each is categorised correctly, by income type and expense category.
Confirm each has a source document attached or referenced.

Confirm income sources are correctly set up.

One self-employment per trade (consultancy, plumbing, and so on).
One property business per UK property portfolio, and one per overseas country.
Joint property splits applied correctly.

If any of these is not in order, this is the time to fix them. If the first quarter went badly, this is also where you find out why.

14 days out: review

For the November deadline, that is the third week of October. This is the review window for any judgement calls.

Run a draft quarterly report from your software.

Total income by source for the quarter.
Total expenses by category for the same period.
Net position, for your own visibility. It is not part of the submission.

Check for outliers.

Any single transaction unusually large or unusually small?
Any category with zero entries that you would expect to have some? Vehicle costs, fuel and software subscriptions are common ones to forget.
Any duplicates? A bank feed plus manual entry sometimes creates them.

Compare against last quarter. This is the one advantage of having a first quarter behind you. If income or a cost category has moved sharply and you cannot say why, find out before you submit rather than after.

Check VAT alignment if VAT-registered.

Quarterly income should reconcile to your VAT return for the same approximate period, allowing for stagger differences.
If they materially diverge, find the reason before submitting.

Save a backup of the figures.

Export the quarterly report as a PDF, or screenshot the totals.
Useful if the submission later needs revision.

7 days out: prepare the submission

For the November deadline, that is the last day of October onwards. The work in the final week is purely the submission itself.

Do not change records during this week. If a transaction needs to be added or amended, do it before the seven-day window if possible. Last-minute changes are where most submission errors come in.

Check the HMRC connection is live. Some software prompts a re-authentication every 90 days. If you connected in the summer for the August deadline, this is exactly the point at which it may have lapsed. Confirm yours is in date.

Read the relevant HMRC guidance one more time. The rules are evolving in the early period and there may be clarifications since you set up.

Diary the submission. Pick a specific 30-minute slot, not “sometime before the 7th”.

Day of submission

Fifteen to twenty minutes if everything is ready.

Open your software’s MTD ITSA submission area.
Generate the quarterly update for the 6 July to 5 October period.
Review the figures one more time.
Confirm and submit.
Save the HMRC submission confirmation, as a PDF or screenshot.
Diary the next quarterly update. Q3 is due 7 February 2027.

Common errors, and what the first quarter exposed

These come up most often, and most of them showed up somewhere in the run-up to 7 August.

Forgetting to sign up for MTD ITSA at GOV.UK. The software connection is not the registration. Without the registration, the submission fails. This was the single most common reason a first submission did not happen at all.

Income sources not configured for MTD. Each trade and each property business needs to be set up as a separate income source. If your software has them all rolled into one, the quarterly update will not have the right shape.

Joint property income reported in full instead of split. A married couple jointly owning a BTL with £30,000 of rent need each spouse’s records to show £15,000 on the default 50:50 split, not the full £30,000 reported by both.

Mixing personal and business in one bank account. Personal expenses appearing in the records as business expenses overstates costs. Personal income appearing as business income overstates revenue.

Late receipts not captured. A wholesale invoice received in September but only entered into software in October, after the period close, needs to be properly dated to September for the records to be correct.

Bank feed gaps. If the bank feed missed a few days, and this does happen, manual entries have to fill the gap before the period close.

Submitting before the period closes. You can only submit the quarter from the day after it closes, so 6 October onwards for the Q2 update.

What happens after submission

HMRC’s system processes the update typically within minutes, sometimes hours. You receive a confirmation in the software, and an email if you have HMRC notifications enabled.

The figures are now on HMRC’s record for that quarter. They contribute to your eventual tax position but are not a binding tax calculation; the final declaration is where the precise tax bill is set.

If you spot an error after submission, you can correct it. Quarterly updates are explicitly allowed to be revised, either in a subsequent quarterly update or at the final declaration.

Frequently asked questions

When is the next MTD quarterly update due? 7 November 2026, covering the period 6 July to 5 October 2026. The first update was due 7 August 2026 and covered 6 April to 5 July 2026.

I missed the 7 August deadline. What happens now? You earn one penalty point. Four points equals a £200 penalty for quarterly filers. HMRC has indicated leniency in the early period, but the rules are real. File the missed update as soon as you can, then work to the 7 November deadline.

Can I submit early? Yes, any time after the period closes. For the quarter ending 5 October, we aim to have client submissions done in the third week of October.

What if I miss the deadline? You earn one penalty point. Four points equals a £200 penalty for quarterly filers. HMRC has indicated leniency in the early period but the rules are real.

Can I correct a quarterly update after submission? Yes. Revisions are allowed and normal. The final position is set at the year-end final declaration.

Do I need a separate accountant log-in for HMRC? If you use an accountant, they will have their own agent access. You do not need to share your Government Gateway credentials with them; the agent connection is a separate, secure channel.

What records does HMRC actually see? HMRC sees the summary figures you submit: income totals and expense totals by category. They do not see individual transactions or attached receipts. The detailed records have to be available to HMRC if requested in an enquiry, but they are not transmitted with each quarterly update.

Is the first submission harder than subsequent ones? Yes. Setup, registration and first-time workflow add friction the first time. By the second quarter the routine is familiar and the submission is much faster.

Talk to us about your next quarterly submission

We are running MTD ITSA submissions for clients across Northern Ireland, and the 7 November quarter is the one to get ahead of. If you missed August, or you are not sure whether you are in scope at all, our guide to the MTD threshold is the place to start, and our Making Tax Digital service covers what we handle. The first conversation is free.