MTD Quarterly Deadlines 2026-27: Free UK Landlord Calendar

In short: Landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 are in Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026, and the first four quarterly update deadlines are 7 August 2026, 7 November 2026, 7 February 2027 and 7 May 2027. Each update is a cumulative summary of your property income and expenses, sent from digital records through MTD-compatible software. Miss deadlines and you collect penalty points: 4 points on quarterly obligations triggers a £200 fine, though HMRC is not applying points to late quarterly updates in the first year. The threshold falls to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028.

Who Has to Meet These Deadlines

Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax became mandatory on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, assessed on the 2024 to 2025 tax return (gov.uk eligibility guidance). Qualifying income means your combined gross income from self-employment and property, before any expenses come off. A landlord collecting £55,000 in rent with £30,000 of costs is over the line, even though the profit is only £25,000.

The net widens in two further steps:

From	Qualifying income threshold	Assessed on
6 April 2026	Over £50,000	2024 to 2025 tax return
6 April 2027	Over £30,000	2025 to 2026 tax return
6 April 2028	Over £20,000	2026 to 2027 tax return

If you are under the threshold this year, you are not off the hook for long. Two or three averagely rented properties will clear £30,000 gross in much of the country, so a large share of self-managing landlords join in April 2027. If you are new to the regime, start with our complete MTD guide for landlords, which covers signing up, choosing software and getting your records in shape. This page is the working calendar you come back to each quarter.

The Quarterly Deadline Calendar for 2026-27

MTD splits the tax year into four update periods. Under the standard periods, each quarter follows the tax year, and the update is due on the 7th of the month following the quarter end (gov.uk: send quarterly updates).

Quarter	Period covered	Deadline
Q1	6 April to 5 July 2026	7 August 2026
Q2	6 April to 5 October 2026	7 November 2026
Q3	6 April to 5 January 2027	7 February 2027
Q4	6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027	7 May 2027

Notice that every period starts on 6 April. That is not a typo: updates are cumulative, which we cover below. The same four deadlines then repeat every year, so 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May are dates worth putting in your calendar as recurring reminders now.

Calendar Quarters, Same Deadlines

If tax-year quarters ending on the 5th of the month feel awkward against your bank statements, you can elect calendar update periods instead: 1 April to 30 June, then to 30 September, 31 December and 31 March. The deadlines do not move, Q1 is still due 7 August. Two rules from gov.uk: you must select calendar periods in your software before you send your first quarterly update, and you cannot change the update periods you are using for a tax year after you have sent one.

What a Quarterly Update Actually Contains

A quarterly update is less frightening than it sounds. It is a summary of totals for each income and expense category, generated from your digital records and sent by your software. HMRC does not receive your individual records, receipts or invoices (gov.uk: send quarterly updates). No tax calculation is due with it and no payment accompanies it.

The expense categories mirror the property pages you already know from the annual return, so if you can complete an SA105 form, you can read a quarterly update. Rent received, repairs, insurance, professional fees and finance costs each roll up into their own category total.

The key design feature is that updates are cumulative. Each one covers from the start of the tax year to the end of the update period, not just the latest three months. That has a very practical benefit: if you miscategorised an expense in Q1, you do not file an amendment. You correct the digital record and the next cumulative update carries the fixed totals. Adjustments that only make sense at year end, such as reporting your share of joint property expenses or claiming Rent-a-Room relief, can be handled by resending your fourth quarterly update.

After the four updates, you still submit a tax return through your software by 31 January the following year, adding any other income sources such as employment or dividends (gov.uk: find compatible software). Payment deadlines have not changed either, which means the quarterly cycle spreads the admin, not the tax bill.

Digital Records: What You Must Keep and When

Quarterly updates are only as good as the records behind them, and MTD is prescriptive about those records. For every item of property income or expense you must digitally record the amount, the date the income was received or the expense incurred, and the category (gov.uk: create digital records).

Timing matters too. Digital records for a quarter must exist before the quarterly update deadline for that period, or before you send the update if you submit early. HMRC’s guidance is to create records as close to the date of the transaction as possible, which in practice means logging rent and expenses as they happen rather than reconstructing a quarter the night before the 7th.

Spreadsheets are not banned, but they must be digitally linked to bridging software that sends the update. And once a record has gone to HMRC in a quarterly update, you must not manually move it, retyping it into another cell or copying and pasting it into other software breaks the digital link rules. Records must be kept for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline for the tax year.

Getting the categories right is where the money is: a well-categorised record set means every deductible cost lands in the right box automatically. Our landlord tax deductions guide covers what you can claim, and the allowable expenses guide shows how to categorise the grey areas.

Penalties: How the Points System Works

Late quarterly updates are policed by a points-based system rather than instant fines (gov.uk: penalties for late submission).

• Each late submission earns one penalty point.
• For quarterly obligations the penalty threshold is 4 points. Reach it and HMRC charges a £200 penalty.
• Every further late submission while you sit at the threshold costs another £200.
• Individual points expire after 2 years, but not once you have reached the threshold. To reset from the threshold you must meet every deadline for a 12 month period of compliance and submit anything outstanding from the previous 24 months.

There is a first-year concession: for those mandated from April 2026, HMRC has said it will not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates in the 2026 to 2027 tax year, though penalties still apply to a late tax return and late payment (gov.uk: sign up guidance). Treat that as breathing room to bed in your process, not a spare year, the habits you build in 2026-27 are the ones the points system starts scoring in 2027-28.

Late payment penalties are separate and sharper. From the 2025 to 2026 tax year onwards, tax unpaid 15 days after the due date attracts a 3% penalty, a further 3% applies to whatever is still owed at day 30, and from day 31 an annual rate of 10% runs on the outstanding balance (gov.uk penalty guidance).

Software: What It Has to Do

You cannot type a quarterly update into a form on gov.uk; it must come from software. HMRC’s compatible software list sets out what qualifying products do: create, store and correct digital records of your income and expenses, send quarterly updates, and submit your tax return by 31 January the following year.

Two routes work. Full record-keeping software keeps the records and submits from one place. Bridging software connects to records you keep in spreadsheets and handles the submission leg. Free products exist for simple tax affairs, though usually with limits on usage and transactions, and HMRC does not recommend any particular provider. Our complete MTD guide compares the popular landlord options and what they cost.

Whichever you choose, set it up well before your first deadline. The election between tax-year and calendar quarters has to happen before your first update goes, and a first submission is much calmer when the bank feed has already been running for a couple of months.

A Quarterly Routine That Holds Up

The deadlines reward rhythm rather than heroics. A routine that works for most self-managing landlords:

1. Weekly, 10 minutes: reconcile the bank feed, photograph any paper receipts, check each transaction has a category and property against it.
2. First week of the deadline month (August, November, February, May): review the quarter’s totals against your bank statements, fix any miscategorised items, then submit. Because updates are cumulative, this review also quietly audits the whole year to date.
3. After submitting: save the confirmation from your software. If HMRC queries an update months later, you want proof of what went and when.

The deadline banner at the top of this page always shows the next date. Bookmark this guide, put the four recurring dates in your calendar, and the quarterly cycle becomes a half-hour habit instead of a cliff edge.

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Deadlines and thresholds verified against gov.uk guidance in July 2026. Rules can change, always check the latest HMRC guidance before acting.