{"id":1325,"date":"2026-07-20T09:34:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bsassociate.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1325"},"modified":"2026-08-10T09:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T09:43:08","slug":"first-mtd-quarterly-update-step-by-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bsassociate.co.uk\/blog\/first-mtd-quarterly-update-step-by-step\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Submit Your First MTD Quarterly Update (Step-by-Step Guide)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quick Answer&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your first MTD quarterly update covers 6 April to 5 July 2026 and is due by 7 August 2026, but you cannot submit anything until two earlier steps are done: signing up with HMRC (which has its own eligibility rules beyond the \u00a350,000 income threshold) and&nbsp;authorising&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/guidance\/choose-the-right-software-for-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/guidance\/choose-the-right-software-for-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax\">MTD-compatible software<\/a> to connect to your HMRC account. Both stages involve their own identity checks. This guide covers all three stages in order, using HMRC&#8217;s current published guidance rather than a generic software tutorial.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>You Got a Letter From HMRC. Now What?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If your qualifying income from self-employment and property was over \u00a350,000 on your 2024\/25 tax return, HMRC has&nbsp;likely already&nbsp;written to you directly to confirm you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026. That letter is&nbsp;a notification, not an instruction to act&nbsp;immediately, and it&nbsp;doesn&#8217;t&nbsp;mean&nbsp;you&#8217;re&nbsp;automatically enrolled. You still need to complete sign-up yourself, or through us as your agent, before anything can be filed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&nbsp;didn&#8217;t&nbsp;receive a letter but believe your income puts you over the threshold, the responsibility to check and sign up sits with you, not HMRC. Waiting for a letter that HMRC has no record of sending you is one of the most common, and entirely avoidable, reasons people miss their first deadline. Our guide on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bsassociate.co.uk\/blog\/making-tax-digital-income-tax-sole-traders-landlords-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from April 2026<\/a>&nbsp;explains how to confirm your qualifying income properly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why You Might Be Blocked&nbsp;From&nbsp;Signing Up at All<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The income threshold&nbsp;isn&#8217;t&nbsp;the only condition. HMRC&#8217;s sign-up service also requires that you already have an active&nbsp;Self Assessment&nbsp;registration and have filed a return within the past two tax years. This is where a genuine gap shows up: someone newly self-employed, whose income is comfortably over \u00a350,000 but who&nbsp;hasn&#8217;t&nbsp;yet had a first&nbsp;Self Assessment&nbsp;return come due, cannot complete sign-up yet, regardless of how far over the threshold they are. If this applies to you, the fix&nbsp;isn&#8217;t&nbsp;to wait,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;to get your&nbsp;Self Assessment&nbsp;position sorted&nbsp;first&nbsp;so sign-up becomes possible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What Actually Counts Toward Your \u00a350,000, and What Doesn&#8217;t<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Qualifying income is your gross turnover from self-employment and property combined, before expenses, based on your most recently filed return. One detail that trips people up: if you receive a share of profit from a partnership as an individual partner, that share does not count toward your qualifying income for MTD purposes, and you&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;need to keep MTD digital records for it. You will, however, still need to add it as a separate income source when you come to&nbsp;submit&nbsp;your tax return through your software. Mixing this up with your sole trade or rental figures is a common, and unnecessary, complication at sign-up.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Two Identity Checks, Not One<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most guides mention that HMRC verifies your identity during sign-up. Fewer&nbsp;mention&nbsp;that a second, separate identity check happens later, when you&nbsp;authorise&nbsp;your chosen software to connect to your HMRC account.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At sign-up, you&#8217;ll either use a smartphone app to match a photo of yourself against your passport or driving&nbsp;licence, or answer identity questions based on information HMRC already holds, drawn from sources such as your credit reference file, a recent P60, or a past&nbsp;payslip.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Later, when you link your software to HMRC so it can actually&nbsp;transmit&nbsp;your quarterly updates, you go through a separate&nbsp;authorisation&nbsp;step tied to your Government Gateway credentials. Treating these as the same one-off task is why some people think&nbsp;they&#8217;re&nbsp;ready to file the moment sign-up finishes, only to find their software still&nbsp;isn&#8217;t&nbsp;connected.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Choosing Software That Actually Fits Your Situation<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">HMRC&nbsp;doesn&#8217;t&nbsp;sell or provide MTD software itself, so this choice sits with you. Before picking anything,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;worth knowing what HMRC&#8217;s own software-finder tool&nbsp;actually asks, because it reflects what genuinely affects which product will work for you:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which of your income sources need to be covered, specifically self-employment, UK property, or foreign property, since not every product supports all three equally well. Whether you have other income to report alongside these. Whether you want to start fresh digital records or connect the software to&nbsp;books&nbsp;you&#8217;re&nbsp;already keeping. And your accounting period, since some software only supports tax-year quarters while others also handle calendar-month quarters if&nbsp;you&#8217;re&nbsp;already MTD-registered for VAT.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Landlords and sole traders managing more than one income stream, common among London-based consultants with a rental property on the side, should check this before committing, since switching software part way through the year adds friction you&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;need during your first few quarters.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Submitting the Update Itself<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once sign-up and software&nbsp;authorisation&nbsp;are both genuinely complete, the update itself is the shortest part of the&nbsp;whole process.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Confirm the reporting period your software has&nbsp;selected. It should default to 6 April to 5 July 2026 for this first update, but check it, particularly if you signed up partway through the tax year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Make sure your digital records for the full period are complete and correctly&nbsp;categorised.&nbsp;Anything left unsorted either gets excluded or dumped into a generic category, which distorts what HMRC actually sees.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Review the totals your software generates before sending.&nbsp;You&#8217;re&nbsp;looking at category summaries, income and expenses, not individual transactions, so this is your last real chance to catch something&nbsp;miscategorised.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Submit directly through the software.&nbsp;There&#8217;s&nbsp;no separate HMRC web portal for this step; the submission goes through your&nbsp;software&#8217;s&nbsp;connection to HMRC, and&nbsp;you&#8217;ll&nbsp;receive a confirmation once&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;gone through.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Check your estimated tax position afterwards. HMRC makes a running estimate available in your software or your HMRC online account once the update lands, which is genuinely one of the more useful parts of the new system if you&nbsp;actually look&nbsp;at it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Your First Submission Doesn&#8217;t Have to Be Perfect<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Quarterly updates are cumulative by design. If your first submission&nbsp;contains&nbsp;an estimate or a&nbsp;figure&nbsp;you&#8217;re&nbsp;not fully confident in, it can be corrected in a later update or at your Final Declaration rather than requiring you to resubmit the original quarter. This matters because waiting for perfect figures before&nbsp;submitting&nbsp;anything is a common reason people miss the deadline entirely, when&nbsp;submitting&nbsp;a reasonable estimate on time would have been the better move.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What If Your Circumstances Change Mid-Year?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you stop trading, start a new income source, or your qualifying income situation changes after&nbsp;you&#8217;ve&nbsp;signed up, HMRC&#8217;s guidance treats this as an active update you need to make, not something that resolves itself automatically. Leaving your MTD record out of step with your actual circumstances tends to surface as a mismatch later, usually at the least convenient point, your Final Declaration.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Penalty Points&nbsp;System,&nbsp;Properly Explained<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A late quarterly update or a late tax return each&nbsp;add&nbsp;a single penalty point to your record, and reaching four points within the relevant window triggers an automatic \u00a3200 fixed penalty. Late tax payments sit outside this points system entirely and are&nbsp;penalised&nbsp;through their own separate route. For the 2026\/27 tax year specifically, HMRC has confirmed quarterly updates&nbsp;won&#8217;t&nbsp;accrue&nbsp;penalty points, but that easement does not cover your tax return or your payment deadlines, both of which remain fully penalty-bearing on their normal dates. For the fuller cost picture, including what a rushed first quarter can cost beyond penalties, see our piece on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bsassociate.co.uk\/blog\/mtd-quarterly-update-cost-london\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">what a late or inaccurate first MTD update could cost you<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>If You Genuinely Cannot Use Digital Software<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An exemption route exists for people who cannot&nbsp;reasonably use&nbsp;digital tools, including on grounds of age, disability, location, or religious belief. It&nbsp;has to&nbsp;be actively applied for and approved by HMRC; it&nbsp;isn&#8217;t&nbsp;granted automatically because the transition feels difficult. If approved, you continue filing an annual&nbsp;Self Assessment&nbsp;return, though that route still carries its own late-filing penalties on its usual deadlines.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why This Gets More Complicated for London Sole Traders and Landlords<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">London&#8217;s self-employed population skews heavily toward mixed-income situations, a&nbsp;consultancy alongside a buy-to-let, several tenancies across different boroughs, or freelance work layered with a property portfolio.&nbsp;Each income source has to be individually confirmed at sign-up and run through its own submission cycle from that point forward.&nbsp;The friction here shows up at sign-up and software setup far more often than at the actual filing button, which is exactly the stage most other guides skip past.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Get It Done Properly, First Time<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At Brayan &amp; Spencer Associates, our team works through sign-up, identity verification, software&nbsp;authorisation, and your first submission for clients across London every quarter, rather than leaving you to piece together HMRC&#8217;s&nbsp;guidance yourself. We provide MTD-compatible software as part of our service at no extra cost, connected and configured for your specific income sources from day one.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Call Brayan &amp; Spencer Associates on 0207 183 5956<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0<strong>visit\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bsassociate.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>www.bsassociate.co.uk<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to get set up correctly before 7 August 2026. You can also browse our full\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bsassociate.co.uk\/blog\/category\/making-tax-digital\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Making Tax Digital blog category<\/a>\u00a0for related guidance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Frequently Asked Questions<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"schema-faq wp-block-yoast-faq-block\"><div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1784535777386\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>I got an HMRC letter about MTD. Do I need to do anything right away?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Yes, eventually, but the letter itself\u00a0doesn&#8217;t\u00a0enrol\u00a0you automatically. You still need to complete sign-up, which has its own eligibility conditions separate from the income figure in the letter.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1784535794534\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>Why won&#8217;t HMRC let me sign up even though\u00a0I&#8217;m\u00a0well over the \u00a350,000 threshold?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Sign-up also requires an active\u00a0Self Assessment\u00a0registration and a return filed within the last two years. Newly self-employed people sometimes fall into this gap even with high income.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1784535818948\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>Does profit from a partnership count toward my qualifying income?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">No. A partner&#8217;s individual profit share\u00a0doesn&#8217;t\u00a0count toward qualifying income for MTD and\u00a0doesn&#8217;t\u00a0need MTD digital records, though it still needs to be reported separately on your tax return through your software.\u00a0<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1784535833168\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>I finished\u00a0sign-up. Why can&#8217;t I\u00a0submit\u00a0an update yet?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Sign-up and software\u00a0authorisation\u00a0are two separate steps, each with its own identity check. Your software needs to be specifically connected to your HMRC account before it can\u00a0transmit\u00a0anything.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1784535880165\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>What happens if my circumstances change partway through the year?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">You need to update your MTD position to\u00a0reflect\u00a0it, such as a new income source or a business\u00a0that&#8217;s\u00a0ceased. This\u00a0doesn&#8217;t\u00a0resolve itself automatically and can create a mismatch at your Final Declaration if left unaddressed.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1784535886963\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>How many penalty points before an actual fine applies?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Four points within the relevant window trigger an automatic \u00a3200 fixed penalty. Quarterly updates\u00a0won&#8217;t\u00a0accrue\u00a0points during 2026\/27, but your tax return and payment deadlines are unaffected by that easement.<\/p> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quick Answer&nbsp; Your first MTD quarterly update covers 6 April to 5 July 2026 and is due by 7 August 2026, but you cannot submit anything until two earlier steps are done: signing up with HMRC (which has its own eligibility rules beyond the \u00a350,000 income threshold) and&nbsp;authorising&nbsp;MTD-compatible software to connect to your HMRC account. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[45,50,47,49,51],"class_list":["post-1325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-making-tax-digital","tag-making-tax-digital","tag-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax-2","tag-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax","tag-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax-self-assessment","tag-making-tax-digital-software"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Submit Your First MTD Quarterly Update<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A step-by-step guide to submitting your first MTD quarterly update to HMRC before the 7 August 2026 deadline.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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