Four quarterly deadlines a year, plus the return, and a client to chase for each

Checked against GOV.UK on 19 October 2026. This is a summary for planning, not tax advice.

Who is in, and when

Sole traders and landlords join Making Tax Digital for Income Tax based on their qualifying income: their total gross income from self-employment and property before expenses.

So the clients who join in April 2027 are decided by the 2025 to 2026 returns your team is preparing now. That is the moment to spot them, not next spring.

The 2026 to 2027 quarterly deadlines

The tax return for 2026 to 2027 is due by 31 January 2028. Note that the third quarterly update lands one week after the 31 January Self Assessment deadline.

Penalties: the soft landing

HMRC has said it will not give penalty points for late quarterly updates in the 2026 to 2027 tax year. Late tax returns and late payment are still penalised. From 2027 to 2028, late quarterly updates count towards penalty points, so the habits clients form this year matter.

What it means for chasing

For each client in scope, the request for records can now happen up to four times a year before the year-end work, instead of once. Put a number on it: a practice with 60 clients in scope has 240 quarterly requests to send, track and follow up before the year-end work even starts. The filing itself is usually quick once the records are in. Getting them in is the work.

ICAEW’s write-up of the first quarterly deadline in August 2026 lists missing client information among the problems practitioners ran into, alongside software and HMRC system issues.

Records Chaser sends each client dated reminders ahead of every quarterly deadline, from your mailbox and approved by your team, and gives you one list of who’s late every Friday. See how it works.

Authorisations for new and joining clients

To act for a client under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, an agent needs the right authorisation through their agent services account, and the client has to accept the request. A request that sits unread in a client’s inbox holds everything else up, which is why Onboarding Desk reminds the client until it is accepted.See Onboarding Desk.

Sources

• GOV.UK: Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
• GOV.UK: Send quarterly updates
• GOV.UK: Add your client authorisations for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
• ICAEW: First MTD income tax submission, how did it go? (August 2026)

Read: chasing clients for MTD records without souring the relationship