Quick answer:
A quarterly update is a digital summary of your income and expenses sent to HMRC four times a year through MTD-compatible software. It is not a tax bill and not a full return ,just running totals for the quarter. Each is due roughly one month after the quarter ends.
What a quarterly update actually is
Under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, you no longer wait until January to tell HMRC how your year went. Instead, your software sends a short summary of income and expenses every quarter. The figures are cumulative and can be corrected later ,the goal is keeping HMRC roughly up to date, not finalising your tax four times a year.
The four quarterly periods and deadlines
Standard quarters follow the tax year, and each update is generally due about a month after the period ends. Each update is due by the 7th of the second month after the quarter ends. For 2026/27:
- Quarter 1: 6 April – 5 July (due early August)
- Quarter 2: 6 July – 5 October (due early November)
- Quarter 3: 6 October – 5 January (due early February)
- Quarter 4: 6 January – 5 April (due early May)
Good software shows your next deadline and reminds you before it arrives, so dates never sneak up on you.
How to submit a quarterly update, step by step
- Connect your bank through open banking so transactions import automatically.
- Review how each transaction has been categorised ,income, expenses, and any that need attention.
- Confirm anything the software has flagged (duplicates, unusual items, uncategorised entries).
- Check the running totals for the quarter look right.
- Submit the update directly to HMRC from your software in a couple of clicks.
With automated categorisation in place, the whole process is usually a few minutes of reviewing rather than hours of data entry. HMRC explains the submission process in its guidance on using MTD for Income Tax.
What happens after the four updates
Quarterly updates feed into your year-end final declaration, where you confirm your total income and settle your tax by 31 January. Because the groundwork is already done across the year, finalising becomes a confirmation rather than a reconstruction. Quarterly updates draw on your digital records, so it’s worth getting those right first. Submit late and you’ll accrue points, see the MTD penalty points system.
How CleanBooksAI handles quarterly updates
CleanBooksAI imports your transactions automatically, lets the Keeva assistant categorise them, keeps a real-time tax estimate, and files each quarterly update straight to HMRC. You review, confirm, and submit ,no spreadsheets, no last-minute scramble. Still on spreadsheets? Here’s how to switch to MTD software.
