7 November 2026: your second MTD quarterly deadline

As of July 2026, the next Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax quarterly deadline after 7 August is 7 November 2026. It is the second quarterly update of the first MTD year, and the update repeats everything you have already reported.

What period does the 7 November update cover?

Quarter 2 itself runs from 6 July to 5 October 2026, but the update you send by 7 November covers 6 April to 5 October 2026. Quarterly updates are cumulative: each one restates the tax year so far, so the second update includes Quarter 1’s three months and adds the next three. You are sending a running total for the year, not a separate return for each quarter.

That is why the covered period grows every time. Quarter 1 covers three months, Quarter 2 covers six, Quarter 3 covers nine, and Quarter 4 covers the whole tax year, while the deadlines stay on the 7th of August, November, February and May.

I missed 7 August. Do I have to file Quarter 1 separately?

No. Filing the 7 November update catches you up on its own, because its period already includes 6 April to 5 July. Send the cumulative figures up to 5 October and HMRC has the whole year so far. There is nothing extra to submit and nobody to explain it to. For the longer version, see missed the 7 August MTD deadline?.

Is there a penalty if the 7 November update is late?

Not in the 2026-27 tax year. HMRC is not issuing penalty points for late quarterly updates in this first year (HMRC’s penalty guidance (opens in a new tab) sets it out). File as soon as you can and you are square: no fine, no point, no phone call. The year-end final declaration, first due 31 January 2028, is different: a late one earns a penalty point, and interest runs on unpaid tax from the first day.

What to have ready for 7 November

• Your business income and expenses from 6 April to 5 October 2026, in digital form. A bank statement export covers most of it.
• A category for every transaction in that period, including the ones you already reported in August.
• Your HMRC sign-up already done: it is a separate job from choosing software, and it is the step people miss.
• No money. No tax is calculated or paid on 7 November, because the update is a summary, not a bill.

The whole job, start to finish, is in how to file your first quarterly update. The steps are the same for the second one, and quicker, because your categories are already set.

If you would rather not carry four dates in your head, we can email you 7 days before each one: no account, no software sign-up. And if you are still not certain MTD applies to you, the two-minute checker gives your exact start date.