The first Making Tax Digital deadline is 7 August. Here's what to file (and how long it takes)

MTD is no longer coming, it's here

On 7 August 2026, hundreds of thousands of self-employed people in the UK have to do something they've never done before: send HMRC a quarterly update. HMRC puts the number in scope at around 864,000 sole traders and landlords.

It's the first real deadline of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, the regime that started on 6 April this year. The good news is that the update itself is small. HMRC says it takes minutes to send through recognised software, and one worked example it published came in at about ten minutes. The bad news is that plenty of freelancers still don't know whether they're affected at all. Let's sort that out first.

Who has to file by 7 August

You're in scope if you're a sole trader or landlord and your combined income from self-employment and property was over £50,000 in the 2024/25 tax year. That's gross income, before expenses and tax, not profit.

Under £50,000? Nothing is due from you yet. But the threshold drops to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028, so most full-time freelancers will be pulled in over the next two years. Getting your records digital now is far easier than doing it in a panic later.

Partnerships and limited companies are excluded from this rollout. If you trade as a sole trader or landlord in your own name, you're the one in scope.

What a quarterly update actually is

A short summary of your business income and expenses for the period 6 April to 5 July 2026. If you've chosen calendar quarters in your software, it's 1 April to 30 June instead.

That's it. It is not a tax return. There's no tax calculation to agonise over and nothing to pay at this point, because payment still happens through Self Assessment as normal. You're essentially showing HMRC your running totals for the quarter.

After this one, the rhythm is fixed:

• Quarter 1 (6 April to 5 July), due 7 August 2026
• Quarter 2 (6 July to 5 October), due 7 November 2026
• Quarter 3 (6 October to 5 January), due 7 February 2027
• Quarter 4 (6 January to 5 April), due 7 May 2027

How you send it

Through MTD-recognised software. There's no option to type it into your HMRC online account manually, and GOV.UK keeps a list of compatible software.

If you've been keeping digital records since April, this really is the ten-minute version. If your records are a shoebox of receipts, the real work is getting the quarter into software, not the filing itself. That's the honest split, and it's why the freelancers who find MTD painless are the ones who were already invoicing digitally.

What to do before 7 August

1. Check you're actually in scope using your 2024/25 combined self-employment and property income.
2. Get MTD-recognised software in place if you haven't already. Spreadsheets only work if they connect through recognised bridging software.
3. Make sure April to July is fully recorded: every invoice raised, every payment received, every business expense, categorised the way HMRC expects.
4. Submit the update before 7 August. Your accountant can file it for you, but they still need your records to be current.

What if you miss it

HMRC is being lenient in year one: late quarterly updates won't earn penalty points until the second year of the regime. So a miss this year won't cost you money.

After that, each missed deadline is a point, and four points triggers a £200 penalty, with a further £200 for each late submission after that. It works like a driving licence. A slip won't sink you, but a pattern will.

The soft landing is a reason to get your process right now, not a reason to ignore August. The habits you build this quarter are the ones you'll be running for years.

What doesn't change

Your Self Assessment tax return is still due by 31 January. Quarterly updates don't replace it, they sit on top. Think of them as HMRC asking to see your bookkeeping four times a year instead of never.

The payments on account trap, if you're newly self-employed

If MTD has coincided with your first proper year of self-employment, watch out for payments on account. Once your tax bill crosses £1,000, HMRC asks you to pay what you owe for the year just gone plus 50% of next year's estimated bill, twice. That first combined bill can land at around 150% of your actual annual liability, which catches a lot of newly self-employed people off guard. It isn't a penalty, it's HMRC collecting next year's tax in advance, but budgeting for it early avoids a nasty surprise in January.

The bottom line

If you're over the £50,000 threshold, get your April to July records finalised, categorised and submitted through recognised software before 7 August. Do it once, properly, and every quarter after this one gets easier, because you'll already be keeping clean digital records as you go rather than catching up after the fact.

Source: HMRC's announcement on GOV.UK, Deadline approaches for first Making Tax Digital quarterly update, checked 24 July 2026. This article is general information, not tax advice. For your specific situation, talk to an accountant.