Filed your update, but HMRC says it wasn’t received? What to check and do

You pressed file, your software said “submitted successfully”, and then an email from HMRC arrives telling you to send your quarterly update anyway. Before you file it again or spend an hour on hold: this is a known situation with acknowledged causes. More than 436,000 first updates went through successfully (HMRC, 12 August 2026 (opens in a new tab)). The figures HMRC shared with software developers that week put the acknowledged issues at a few thousand cases in total. In many of those, nothing is wrong with the update itself.

First, check what HMRC actually has

• Sign in to your HMRC online account, with the same login you used when you signed up for MTD.
• Open the Making Tax Digital for Income Tax section and look for your update: the income and expense figures you sent, and a tax estimate built from them.
• If your figures are showing there, they arrived. Keep your software’s confirmation, and read on.

The known HMRC issue

HMRC has acknowledged a fault, tracked under reference MTD-17249, where an update goes through successfully (the software confirms it, and the figures appear in the taxpayer’s account) but the quarter still shows as outstanding, so HMRC’s automatic reminder emails keep firing. Accountants are comparing notes on it on AccountingWEB (opens in a new tab), where the fix was still listed as awaiting scheduling in late July 2026. If this matches what you’re seeing, do not file the same update again: note the date, keep the confirmation, and let HMRC’s fix catch up.

The other cause to rule out: a partial quarter

It isn’t always HMRC’s end. When HMRC sampled these “outstanding” updates, around a third turned out to be genuinely incomplete: the update didn’t cover the whole quarter. Your first update must cover 6 April to 5 July 2026, all of it. If you started keeping digital records partway through (say, in May), your software may have sent figures for only part of the quarter, and HMRC treats that as not done.

The check takes a minute: look at the period your software shows against the submission. If it says 6 April to 5 July, you’re covered. If it starts later, add the missing weeks to your records and file again. Updates are cumulative, so the new submission simply carries the complete figures. No amendment form, no phone call.

Can’t file at all?

Two causes HMRC has acknowledged. If your software shows no open period to file against, HMRC never created your quarterly obligations at sign-up: HMRC said in August 2026 it had fixed the affected accounts (a few hundred cases, by its own figures), so report it if it happens to you now. If you report calendar quarters, that election must show on HMRC’s side before software can submit, and HMRC has said it hopes to fix slow election processing by the end of September 2026. Both are HMRC’s to fix: keep a screenshot, contact HMRC, and don’t re-enter figures. There are no penalty points for late quarterly updates this year, so file once it clears and you’re square.

If a deadline passes while this is unresolved

For the 2026-27 tax year, HMRC is not issuing penalty points for late quarterly updates (HMRC’s penalty guidance (opens in a new tab) confirms it). So even in the slowest case (a genuinely incomplete update, spotted and refiled after the deadline) there is no fine and no penalty point this year. Our guide to MTD penalties and the first-year soft landing has the detail.

Keep two things: your software’s submission confirmation, and a screenshot of your HMRC account showing the figures. And for the deadlines still to come, we can email you 7 days before each one: no account, no software sign-up.