How to
How to send an MTD quarterly update.
A quarterly update is a short summary of your income and expenses for the last three months, sent to HMRC from your software. Here's exactly what goes in it and how to send one.
Checked against HMRC guidance on
What a quarterly update contains
Not your transactions. HMRC gets the totals for each category, separately for each income source (your property business and each self-employment). Updates are cumulative: each one covers the tax year so far, so a correction in quarter 3 fixes quarters 1 and 2 as well.
For a UK property business, the main categories are:
- Rent income (and other property income)
- Premises running costs: rates, insurance, ground rent
- Repairs and maintenance
- Finance costs, such as mortgage interest (handled as a tax credit, not a deduction)
- Professional fees, such as letting agent and accountant fees
- Costs of services: cleaning, gardening, utilities you pay
- Other expenses
Self-employed categories are similar in spirit: turnover, cost of goods, travel, premises, admin, advertising, professional fees and so on.
When it's due
| Quarter ends | Update due |
|---|---|
| 5 July | 7 August |
| 5 October | 7 November |
| 5 January | 7 February |
| 5 April | 7 May |
Step by step
- Sign up for MTD with HMRC through GOV.UK, if HMRC hasn't signed you up already. You need your Government Gateway login and National Insurance number.
- Choose software recognised by HMRC and connect it to your HMRC account. This is a one-time step where HMRC asks you to grant access.
- Get your records in. In Quartax that means downloading a CSV statement from your bank and uploading it. With other tools it might be a bank feed or a spreadsheet.
- Check the categories. Make sure rent is income, personal spending is excluded, and costs are in the right HMRC category. This is the only bit that needs your judgement.
- Review the totals and send. HMRC replies straight away with a confirmation. Keep it.
If you make a mistake
Because updates are cumulative, you fix it in your next update: correct the record and the new year-to-date totals replace the old ones. Anything left over can be adjusted when you make your final declaration after the tax year.
What happens after the fourth quarter
You make a final declaration by 31 January after the tax year. It confirms your figures, adds anything not in the quarterly updates (other income, allowances and reliefs), and works out the tax you owe. It replaces the old Self Assessment return.
New to all this? Start with what MTD for Income Tax is, or check whether it applies to you.