MTD for Income Tax Client Records Checklist and Deadline Planner for Accountants (2026/27)

By , founder of BilagPilotPublished Last reviewed

The compliance side of MTD is well covered elsewhere. What is less written about is the operational consequence for a practice: the records-collection workload multiplies by four, on fixed dates, for every affected client at once.

This page is about that. Thresholds and deadlines are taken from GOV.UK with the dates the guidance was last updated; the request cadence is ours and is clearly marked as such.

2026/27 Making Tax Digital for Income Tax quarterly update deadlines on a timeline with request windows

Short answer

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax replaces one annual records deadline with four quarterly ones. For a client in the first cohort, quarterly updates for 2026/27 are due on 7 August 2026, 7 November 2026, 7 February 2027 and 7 May 2027. The update periods are cumulative — each begins at the start of the tax year rather than at the start of the quarter.

Practically, that means the client records you used to gather once now have to be gathered four times, roughly a month after each period closes. The planner below builds the dates for any of the three rollout years and works backwards to a request cadence. It is a collection planner: it does not file anything and it is not tax advice.

Who this is for

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to sole traders and landlords registered for Self Assessment with income from self-employment or property, where qualifying income exceeds the threshold for the relevant tax year. GOV.UK sets out the rollout as follows.

First cohort

Qualifying income over
£50,000
Measured in tax year
2024 to 2025
Must use MTD from
6 April 2026

Second cohort

Qualifying income over
£30,000
Measured in tax year
2025 to 2026
Must use MTD from
6 April 2027

Third cohort

Qualifying income over
£20,000
Measured in tax year
2026 to 2027
Must use MTD from
6 April 2028
  • HMRC reviews each Self Assessment return and writes to taxpayerswhose qualifying income is above the threshold. GOV.UK is explicit that if no letter arrives, it remains the taxpayer’s responsibility to check.
  • A Self Assessment return is still required for the tax year before a client starts using MTD, and quarterly updates do not replace the return.
  • Partnerships will be brought in later. GOV.UK says the timeline will be set out at a later date.
  • Exemptions exist, including for the digitally excluded. An exempt client still reports through Self Assessment.

Records to request each quarter

The quarterly update is a summary of income and expenses for the period. What you actually need from the client to produce one, quarter after quarter, is the list below. Treat it as a starting template and cut what does not apply — a landlord with two properties and no employees needs perhaps a third of it.

Every quarter, every client

  • Bank statements for every business account, covering the full period, including any account opened mid-period.
  • Receipts or invoices for card and cash spend that is not already supported in the ledger — this is the pile that never arrives on its own.
  • Supplier invoices for anything entered as a bill without a document attached.
  • Sales records: invoices raised, till or platform summaries, and anything received outside the main account.
  • Explanations for transfers between accounts, drawings and anything paid personally on behalf of the business.

Self-employment, where relevant

  • Mileage or vehicle records for the period, kept as the client keeps them.
  • Stock or work-in-progress movements, if the business carries either.
  • Subcontractor payments and any deduction statements.
  • Use-of-home and asset-purchase documentation for anything bought in the period.

Property, where relevant

  • Rent received per property, and the agent's statement where there is one.
  • Repairs and maintenance invoices, separated from improvements — the distinction matters and the client will not make it.
  • Mortgage interest statements and any finance costs.
  • Service charges, ground rent, insurance and letting fees.
  • Details of any property acquired, sold or first let during the period.

2026/27 deadlines

Four deadlines, fixed: 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. Clients may elect calendar update periods starting 1 April instead of tax-year periods starting 6 April; the deadlines are the same either way.

The planner below generates the full set for any of the three rollout years, on either basis, and adds a suggested request cadence. It is printable and downloads as a CSV.

Which year the client first has to send quarterly updates.

Calendar quarters are an election. Both bases share the same four deadlines.

Quarterly update periods, HMRC deadlines and a suggested request cadence for tax year 2026/27
QuarterPeriod coveredHMRC deadlineSend requestReminderDeadline reminderInternal cut-off
Quarter 16 Apr 2026 – 5 Jul 20267 Aug 20266 Jul 202613 Jul 20263 Aug 20265 Aug 2026
Quarter 26 Apr 2026 – 5 Oct 20267 Nov 20266 Oct 202613 Oct 20263 Nov 20265 Nov 2026
Quarter 36 Apr 2026 – 5 Jan 20277 Feb 20276 Jan 202713 Jan 20273 Feb 20275 Feb 2027
Quarter 46 Apr 2026 – 5 Apr 20277 May 20276 Apr 202713 Apr 20273 May 20275 May 2027

Update periods are cumulative— each one starts at the beginning of the tax year, so quarter 4 covers the whole year. The four deadlines are HMRC’s. The request, reminder and cut-off dates are a suggested cadence from BilagPilot, not an HMRC requirement; change them to match how your practice works.

Request and reminder timeline

Take the first quarter of 2026/27 as the worked example. The period ends 5 July 2026 and the update is due 7 August 2026 — thirty-three days. That is the whole window, and it has to absorb the client not replying for a fortnight.

Period closes

Date
5 July 2026
Action
Nothing yet.
Why then
Asking before the period closes produces an incomplete answer you then have to chase again.

Detection run

Date
6 July 2026
Action
Sync the ledger, produce the list of transactions with no attachment, strip out transfers and settled bills.
Why then
The data is complete and there are 32 days left. This step is what quadruples under MTD.

First request

Date
6 July 2026
Action
One link per client, naming every open item.
Why then
Same day as detection. A list that waits is a list that goes stale.

Friendly reminder

Date
13 July 2026
Action
Only to clients with items still open, showing the remaining count.
Why then
A week is long enough to have been missed, short enough that the period is still fresh.

Review window

Date
14–24 July 2026
Action
Approve, reject with reasons, file approved documents back.
Why then
Rejections need time to go back round before the deadline.

Deadline reminder

Date
3 August 2026
Action
Two working days out. State the consequence.
Why then
Late enough to be urgent, early enough that acting on it is still possible.

Internal cut-off

Date
5 August 2026
Action
Close the list. Anything outstanding is marked unavailable with the client's explanation.
Why then
Two days before the HMRC deadline, so preparing the update is not itself a rush.

HMRC deadline

Date
7 August 2026
Action
Quarterly update submitted through MTD software.
Why then
HMRC's date. Not something BilagPilot does.

What BilagPilot does and does not do

Being precise about this matters more than usual here, because the MTD software market is full of products that do file, and conflating the two would be actively unhelpful.

What it does

  • Reads the ledger on a schedule and lists posted transactions with nothing attached.
  • Turns each into a request line the client can recognise, with date, amount and counterparty.
  • Sends one secure link per client, with no login, by email or SMS.
  • Runs the reminder cadence automatically and stops when items arrive.
  • Holds every file for your review — approve, reject with a reason, or mark unavailable.
  • Attaches approved documents back onto the transaction in the ledger.
  • Records who was asked, when, how often and what they answered.

What it does not do

  • It does not submit quarterly updates or anything else to HMRC.
  • It is not MTD-compatible filing software and does not appear on HMRC's software list.
  • It does not calculate qualifying income or decide whether a client is in scope.
  • It does not post journals, create transactions, or choose accounts or tax treatment.
  • It does not advise on how an undocumented expense should be treated.
  • It is not your statutory accounting archive.

In other words it sits upstream of your MTD software, not instead of it. The quarterly update still goes through whatever compatible product you already use; BilagPilot’s job is making sure the records behind it arrived before the deadline rather than after it.

Sources

Everything on this page that describes another company’s product, or a rule set by HMRC, comes from that organisation’s own published material. Each entry below records the date this page last checked it, because these change without notice.

  1. Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (last updated 26 March 2026)

    GOV.UK, HM Revenue & Customs · checked 17 August 2026

  2. Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax — Send quarterly updates (last updated 16 July 2026)

    GOV.UK, HM Revenue & Customs · checked 17 August 2026

  3. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax — HMRC campaign guide

    GOV.UK, HM Revenue & Customs · checked 17 August 2026

  4. BilagPilot integrations and readiness by ledger

    BilagPilot · checked 17 August 2026

Keep reading

How to Chase Clients Without Endless Emails

The cadence the planner assumes, why it is staged, and the six numbers that tell you it is working.

Read it

Missing Receipt Reminder Email Templates

Generate the messages for each quarterly cycle with your firm, client, period and deadline filled in.

Read it

Missing Receipt Chasing Cost Calculator

Model what four cycles a year costs instead of one. Change frequency to quarterly and compare.

Read it

How to Find Xero Transactions Without Attachments

The detection step, four times a year instead of once, is where the extra workload actually lands.

Read it

Four collection deadlines a year, per client

MTD turns one annual scramble into four. BilagPilot produces the list of undocumented transactions from the ledger, chases each client on a schedule you set, and files approved documents back — so the quarterly cycle is a routine rather than a fire drill.

Start 14 days freeBook a product demo

No card required. Nothing is charged automatically.