Your First Year of MTD: What Runs Alongside Your Last Self Assessment Return

Two things running at the same time

The April 2026 cohort (sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000) started MTD quarterly updates from 6 April 2026. But that does not cancel the previous year's Self Assessment return.

The 2025/26 Self Assessment return covers the year to 5 April 2026. It is due by 31 January 2027 and is filed in the normal way, through HMRC's online portal or via your accountant. Nothing about MTD changes that.

So for the first year, two processes run in parallel:

• The 2025/26 Self Assessment return: filed as normal, due 31 January 2027
• MTD quarterly updates for 2026/27: running throughout the year from April 2026

This overlap is a one-off

Once the 2025/26 Self Assessment return is filed, the old process ends. From 2026/27 onwards the annual pattern is straightforward: four quarterly updates during the year, then one tax return filed through MTD-compatible software by 31 January.

How the timeline looks

The soft landing and what it covers

HMRC does not issue penalty points for late quarterly updates in your first year of MTD. If you joined in April 2026, that is the 2026/27 tax year. Autumn Budget 2026 extended the same one-year concession to people joining in April 2027, for the 2027/28 tax year.* It does not give the April 2026 group a second year.

The soft landing does not cover:

• The 2025/26 Self Assessment return: normal late filing penalties apply if you miss the 31 January 2027 deadline
• The 2026/27 MTD tax return: a late submission attracts a penalty point from the first day it is overdue

Payment dates are not changing. Balancing payments remain due by 31 January after the end of the tax year, and payments on account by 31 January and 31 July where they apply.

If you signed up late, or HMRC signed you up

Since September 2026, HMRC has been signing up people in the April 2026 cohort who had not signed up themselves. It writes to confirm. You can also check by signing in to HMRC online services, where a message will tell you if you have been signed up.

If HMRC has not signed you up yet, do not wait. Sign up yourself, or ask your accountant to do it, and start catching up on your quarterly updates. Signing up yourself means your income sources are right from the start. When HMRC signs you up, it only uses the information it already holds.

Once you are signed up, by HMRC or yourself:

• check the income details HMRC holds, and add or remove any income sources that have changed
• get compatible software
• catch up your digital records from 6 April 2026
• send any overdue quarterly updates as soon as you can

You will not get penalty points for late quarterly updates in 2026/27, but they must all be in before you can file your 2026/27 tax return.

People who were in scope from April 2026 but did not register until later in the year face a complication with their first quarterly update.

The quarterly period boundaries do not shift to match your sign-up date. Each update covers from 6 April to the end of the relevant quarter, so your first submission will need to include the required income and expense figures for the whole period from 6 April, including any transactions from before you registered. Your software should guide you through this, but check that your records from before sign-up are captured correctly.

Going forward, signing up at the start of a tax year avoids this entirely.

Common questions

*Announced in the Budget on 28 October 2026. A Budget announcement becomes law in one of two ways. Most tax changes go into the annual Finance Bill, which becomes law when it receives Royal Assent, usually early the following year. Others are made by regulations laid before Parliament. Until then, the details can change.

This page is general guidance, not advice for your own circumstances. It was correct as at the date shown at the top, and tax rules and rates change over time. Please take advice on your own position before acting on anything here.