MTD Petition Asks HMRC for a 3-Month Quarterly Update Deadline

Tax Queen

Tax Expert @ Pie

3 min read

What You Need to Know

Nothing has changed yet. A petition is asking HMRC to give you 3 months, rather than about 5 weeks, to send each Making Tax Digital quarterly update. It's only a request, so the current deadlines still apply.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is the system where you keep digital records and send HMRC a summary of your income and expenses every quarter. If you're already in it, keep working to the current dates. Our guide to Making Tax Digital key dates and thresholds explains how to check whether you need to comply.

Who Is Affected and When Updates Are Due

MTD for Income Tax applies to sole traders and landlords whose gross annual income from self-employment, property or both is above a set threshold. At the moment that threshold is £50,000, and people earning over £30,000 come into the scheme from April 2027.

Each quarterly update is due by the 7th of the month after the quarter ends. That means 7 August for quarter one, 7 November for quarter two and 7 February for quarter three, which usually works out at about 5 weeks.

The same timetable applies to rental income. If you let property, our guide to MTD quarterly updates for landlords explains what you need to send and how to prepare.

What the Petition Asks For

The parliamentary petition closes on 19 November 2026. It asks HMRC to move the quarterly update deadline to 3 months after each quarter ends, so taxpayers and agents have more time to send accurate figures.

The petition argues that the current window puts people under pressure, so they rely more on estimates and the risk of errors and incomplete records goes up. It points to HMRC extending the Capital Gains Tax reporting deadline for UK property from 30 days to 60 days as proof that the rules can be made more flexible.

When the source article was published, the petition had 1,000 signatures [Editor Note: Unverified figure - check against HMRC guidance]. The government responds to petitions that reach 10,000 signatures, and petitions with 100,000 signatures are considered for debate in Parliament. Neither outcome guarantees a change in the rules.

It also helps to know that a quarterly update is a running total, not a tax bill. Our article on whether HMRC calculates your tax from quarterly updates explains how the final figure is worked out.

Keeping Your Quarterly Updates on Track

Unless the rules change, the best way to cope with a short deadline is to record your income and expenses as you go, rather than in the days before the 7th. Matching your receipts each week means that once a quarter ends, most of the work is already done.

Pie Tax is self-assessment software that handles Making Tax Digital for sole traders, landlords and freelancers. It pulls in your income and sorts your allowable expenses through the quarter, so your next update is ready well before the deadline.

If your next deadline is 7 February, now is a good time to get your records in order. Try Pie Tax for free and see how much of your quarter is already sorted.