The How to series · Post 25
The MTD deadline machine
For accountants and the sole traders and landlords they serve: what the quarterly MTD calendar adds from April 2026, and where the record chase eats the quarter.
From April 2026, the calendar grows rows by itself. Sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 now owe Making Tax Digital quarterly updates, every three months, on top of the return. The filing software copes. The chasing doesn't. The same reminder goes out and the same handful of clients go quiet, while the deadline sits there getting closer.
The dates are public on GOV.UK. MTD for Income Tax starts in April 2026 for the self-employed and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000. It reaches over £30,000 from April 2027, and over £20,000 from April 2028. On the GOV.UK schedule, the first quarterly update for the April 2026 group was due by 7 August 2026, and the second falls due by 7 November 2026.
One client is one calendar. Thirty clients in scope is a small filing factory, and the same chase every quarter: where are the records? The part that changes a practice's year isn't more tax. It's more calendar, four times a year, per client, on top of the return.
If you're the client in this story rather than the practice, the calendar lands on you too: digital records and quarterly updates, in compatible software. Either way, the software files the updates. What it doesn't do is notice the client, or the owner, who went quiet in July, and it doesn't chase in words they actually read. That gap is where the hours go.
The maths (a sketch, not a client figure)
- 30 minutes a quarter chasing each client for records (a light chase: emails, a phone call)
- × 30 clients in scope × 4 quarters = 60 hours a year
- × £30 an hour (admin time, not fee-earning time) = £1,800 a year
If the chase takes an hour a client, double it. Most of those hours aren't chasing at all; they're waiting. The real work is watching the calendar and knowing who's missing before the quarter closes.
Score it: the three checks
- Hours. An hour here and there per client, but every quarter, forever: 3.
- Repeat. The chase is the same each quarter, and the deadline list is public and fixed: 4.
- Risk-if-wrong. The filing stays with your software and your sign-off. The part worth handing over is the watching and flagging, where a slip is visible on the calendar before the quarter closes: 4.
Verdict: two at 4 or more, start narrow. Build the deadline list for the 2026 band first. Let the machine flag who's missing. A person decides who gets chased, and how.
Try one thing this week (free)
Write the deadline list yourself: every client in the April 2026 band, with their four quarterly dates for the year ahead, taken from GOV.UK. Then mark who has never once been chased twice for records. Judge it by Friday: the names you marked are where the quarter-end hours concentrate, and it's usually a short list, not the whole book.
Where a person stays
Compliance is approval-only here, and always will be. The machine watches the calendar and flags the quiet clients. It drafts the reminder wording. A person decides who gets chased, in what words, and signs off anything that leaves the practice. Nothing sends unchecked, and financial, compliance and legal work never moves to auto-send, whatever the tool promises.
FAQ
From April 2026, the self-employed and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000. Over £30,000 from April 2027, over £20,000 from April 2028. The dates and the qualifying-income rules are published on GOV.UK.
It files the updates on the fixed deadlines. It doesn't notice the client who went quiet in July, and it doesn't chase in words that client actually reads. The gap between filing and chasing is where practices lose the hours.
Quarterly updates, every three months, per client in scope, on top of the return. One client is one calendar. Thirty clients in scope is a small filing factory, and the same chase every quarter: where are the records?
The flagging can; the chasing shouldn't run unattended. The machine flags who's missing before the quarter closes. A person decides who gets chased and in what words. Clients notice the difference between a nudge and a nag, and nothing sends unchecked.
Late updates earn penalty points rather than an instant penalty, and GOV.UK confirms no points are applied for late quarterly updates in the 2026 to 2027 tax year. The bigger cost is quieter: a practice's attention compressed into the last fortnight of every quarter. The list-based approach exists so nothing reaches that fortnight as a surprise.