Skip to content
logo Knowledgebase

Submit Income Tax quarterly updates

Created on  | Last modified on 

Summary

How to submit your Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax quarterly updates using Sage Sole Trader. Quarterly updates send a summary of your business income and expenses to HMRC throughout the tax year.

Description

What a quarterly update is

A quarterly update sends your cumulative year-to-date business income and expenses to HMRC. It's a summary of your business position, not a full tax return.

You submit four quarterly updates each tax year. Each update is due one month after the quarter ends. You can also submit updates at any time during the year.

HMRC uses quarterly updates to check reporting frequency, not final accuracy.

What gets sent

Your quarterly update includes figures from your completed transactions:

  • Total business income year to date
  • Total business expenses year to date
  • Values grouped by Income Tax categories

Sage sends cumulative figures. Each update replaces the totals from your previous submission.

NOTE:

You still need to send the quarterly update even if you had no income and no expenses in that period.

What doesn’t get sent

Quarterly updates only cover business income and expenses. They don’t include:

  • Savings interest
  • Pension income
  • Dividend income
  • Employment income (PAYE)
  • Any other personal income

These go in your end-of-year declaration, not your quarterly updates.

NOTE:

Quarterly updates don’t include simplified expense adjustments, such as mileage allowance. HMRC calculates mileage at year end. Keep your mileage log throughout the year, but don't create mileage expense transactions for your quarterly submissions.

How accurate quarterly updates need to be

Quarterly updates don't need to be final or exact. You can correct figures later as your records improve. You only need full accuracy when you submit your end-of-year tax return.

Resolution

Before you submit

Check the following before you send your quarterly update:

  • Categorise all your transactions for the period with no remaining drafts
  • Record all your cash income
  • Record your business expenses paid from personal accounts
  • Categorise personal transactions as non-business
  • Your income total looks correct compared to your invoices

Submit your quarterly update

  1. Select Income Tax, then choose Open quarterly update.
  2. Check the information in the Income Tax update is accurate.
  3. Select Send to HMRC.
  4. Confirm your submission.

HMRC then processes your update. Once complete, the quarterly update status changes to reflect this.

After you submit

HMRC sends back a tax estimate. View it in your Income Tax summary to help plan for your tax bill.

You can’t undo a submission. If you made a mistake, correct it in Sage. Your next quarterly update sends new cumulative totals that replace your previous figures.

Quarterly update deadlines for 2026/27

  • Q1: 6 April to 5 July, due 7 August 2026
  • Q2: 6 July to 5 October, due 7 November 2026
  • Q3: 6 October to 5 January, due 7 February 2027
  • Q4: 6 January to 5 April, due 7 May 2027

NOTE:

For 2026/27, HMRC don't penalise late quarterly submissions. Late end-of-year submissions can still attract penalties. For more information, go to GOV.UK.