Under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, you are required to send quarterly updates of your income and expenses to HMRC throughout the year. Your digital tax software allows you to do this directly, or to send your figures to your accounting firm for them to review and submit on your behalf.
Whether you submit yourself or your accounting firm does it for you will depend on the arrangement you have with them. If you are unsure, check with your firm before submitting.
HMRC requires anyone mandated for Making Tax Digital to report their income and expenses four times a year rather than just once at year end. Each quarterly submission covers a three-month period and must be sent by the deadline for that quarter.
The four quarters and their deadlines are:
Quarter 1 (April to June) — deadline 7 August
Quarter 2 (July to September) — deadline 7 November
Quarter 3 (October to December) — deadline 7 February
Quarter 4 (January to March) — deadline 7 May
You can check the status of all your quarterly obligations at any time by going to Tax Submission and selecting the current MTD tax year. From the MTD Submission Overview you will see each quarter listed, colour coded to show its status:
Grey — not due yet
Yellow — now due
Red — overdue
Green — submitted successfully to HMRC
Each quarter is shown separately for each of your businesses, so if you have both a self-employed business and a rental business you will see separate obligations for each.
Go to Tax Submission and select the current MTD tax year.
From the MTD Submission Overview, find the business you wish to submit for and select the quarter that is due.
Review your income and expenses for the quarter to make sure the figures look correct.
When you are satisfied, submit the quarterly update to HMRC.
The quarter will update to green once HMRC has confirmed receipt. This can take up to an hour.
Before submitting, make sure all your transactions for the quarter have been categorised correctly. Once submitted, the quarter is marked as complete with HMRC.
If you would like your accounting firm to check your figures before they are sent to HMRC, you can send the submission to them for review rather than submitting directly.
Follow steps 1 to 3 above to reach your quarterly figures.
Instead of submitting to HMRC, select the option to send for review so your accountant is notified the quarter is ready for review.
Your accounting firm will be notified and will review the figures. They will either submit to HMRC on your behalf or come back to you with any questions.
Once your quarterly update has been submitted to HMRC successfully, the quarter will turn green in your obligations view. This confirms HMRC has received and accepted your submission for that period.
It can take up to an hour for HMRC to confirm receipt and for the quarter to update to green. If it has not updated after an hour, contact your accounting firm.
If you have any questions about your tax calculation or the figures shown, speak to your accounting firm. They will be able to explain your position and advise on any next steps.