What to Include in Your First MTD Quarterly Update (Step by Step)

Updated 2026-06-11 · MTD Survival Kit team

Your first quarterly update is due by 7 August (covering 6 April to 5 July). Here's precisely what's in it, what isn't, and the five steps from "vaguely worried" to "submitted".

What an update contains

Three things only: the period start date, the period end date, and the totals of your digital records for each official HMRC category. For self-employment that's 2 income categories (turnover; other business income) and 13 expense categories. For property, the property set. One update per income source.

What an update does NOT contain

No individual transactions (HMRC only receives totals). No accounting or tax adjustments — no capital allowances, no use-of-home, no disallowables; all of that waits for year end. No payment — tax payment dates are unchanged. No declarations of other income (dividends, savings, employment) — that's also year end.

This is why an update from good records takes ten minutes: the thinking has already happened, one row at a time, during the quarter.

The cumulative rule (works in your favour)

Each update covers the tax year so far — Q2 re-sends April-to-October, not just the new quarter. So a Q1 mistake needs no resubmission: fix the record (add a correction row; don't delete), and Q2 automatically carries the fix. Your software or spreadsheet handles the maths; the MTD Survival Kit spreadsheet does it with a single summary sheet.

Nil quarters still count

No income and no expenses between April and July? You still submit — an update saying exactly that. Two minutes, but skipping it is a missed submission.

The five steps

1. Complete the records. Every income and expense item for 6 April – 5 July, each with date, amount and an official category. This is 90% of the work, and near-zero if you've recorded as you went.

2. Reconcile. Tick rows off against your bank statement. Look for missing items, duplicates, uncategorised rows.

3. Review the category totals. Your summary should show a figure (or a deliberate zero) for each category. Sanity-check: does turnover look like roughly a quarter of your year? Big surprises usually mean a misfiled row.

4. Submit through your tool. Bridging tool or software, authorised with Government Gateway in advance (one-time, minutes — don't leave it for deadline night). Map/import the summary boxes, press send.

5. Save the confirmation, note the estimate. Screenshot the confirmation. Your software now shows an estimated tax bill — move that proportion of profit somewhere safe and January stops being scary.

Then recurring reminders for 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, and the whole thing becomes a one-hour quarterly habit. The MTD Survival Kit (£19) packages the records spreadsheet (categories pre-mapped, cumulative summary built), the plain-English guide and a one-page checklist per quarter.

Educational content, not tax advice. Update contents per HMRC quarterly update direction and gov.uk MTD manual, June 2026.