For sole traders and landlords with income over £50,000, the obligation to submit quarterly updates to HMRC became real on 7 August 2026 – covering income and expenses for April to June.

Here’s what we learned from going through it for the first time with our clients.

The submission itself is not the hard part

The actual process of submitting a quarterly update is, in practice, relatively straightforward – at least once everything is in place. For clients already using cloud accounting software such as Xero, the submission step is not dramatically more demanding than what they were already doing.

What is more demanding – and what caught several of our clients off guard – is everything that has to happen before that submission can be made. Getting records from clients promptly. Translating those records into a compatible format. Reconciling transactions and categorising income correctly. None of that is new work – it is the work that good bookkeeping has always required. MTD simply puts a firm, non-negotiable deadline on it.

The deadline is the real discipline

VAT returns have historically offered some flexibility in cadence. A client with a 30 April or 31 May year-end sits on a slightly offset quarterly cycle, which helps spread the workload. MTD for Income Tax uses calendar quarters – April, July, October, January – regardless of a client’s accounting year end.

In practice, July arrived as an exceptionally busy month for our small but dedicated team. Bookkeeping, management accounts, VAT returns, and MTD collation and submission all landed simultaneously, in many cases for the same clients. It required careful planning and additional hours to manage the pressure – and it is only honest to say that Chloe, our Client Experience Manager, took the brunt of this work with considerable dedication and professionalism.

We are already thinking ahead because the calendar does not get kinder. The December quarter submission falls on 7 February 2027 – one week after the Self-Assessment deadline. The March quarter will land squarely in payroll year end season. We will plan around these pinch points as best we can, and hope that our clients to do the same.

A note on fees

This first quarter has also raised a question we suspect many accountants are navigating: what does a fair fee look like for this new obligation? The learning curve has been real – for us and for our clients. Our time costs money, and MTD represents an additional imposition that was not part of the original engagement for most. For now, we are being lenient, in the optimistic hope that the groundwork laid in these early quarters will pay dividends when it comes to year ends and tax returns. We will review that position as the process becomes more established.

What this means for you

If you are in scope for MTD – currently sole traders and landlords with income over £50,000, expanding to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028 – there are three things worth giving strong consideration to now:

First, make sure your bookkeeping records are current and accessible. MTD deadlines are not negotiable, and late or incomplete records create pressure for everyone.

Second, if you haven’t already, it is worth getting the ball rolling with your accountant – talking through what they will need from you, and when. The more lead time they have, the smoother the process will be.

Third, if you are not yet using MTD-compatible software, the time to make that move is well before a deadline – not during one.

We are here to help clients navigate both the technical requirements and the practical reality of fitting quarterly submissions into an already busy financial calendar. If you would like to talk through what MTD means for your situation, please do get in touch.