A landlord’s first MTD quarter: the update that was never sent

The situation

David owns six rental flats and receives around £62,000 a year in rent. For years his only deadline was the Self Assessment return on 31 January, and his practice, Kestrel Accountancy, ran him through the January rush like everyone else.

From 6 April 2026, David’s qualifying income of more than £50,000 brought him into Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Kestrel signed him up, chose software and explained the new rules in a letter.

What went wrong

The practice’s deadline system was built around annual dates. It had no place to record quarterly updates, so the first one – for 6 April to 5 July 2026, due 7 August 2026 – lived only in a partner’s diary.

In early August that partner was on holiday. David assumed his accountant would send the update. The accountant’s team assumed David would ask for help if he needed it. The update was not sent until September.

What it cost

• A late quarterly update earns a penalty point under the MTD late submission rules, and enough points lead to a financial penalty. HMRC has signalled a light-touch approach while taxpayers adjust, but the point still counts on the client’s record.
• David’s confidence in the practice, at the moment he was paying more for the new service.
• Three more quarters still to come – and nothing in place yet to stop the same thing happening again.

How Deadlio would have caught it

1. MTD status on the client record. In Deadlio, David would have been marked Mandated with an MTD start date of 6 April 2026.
2. Every quarter worked out automatically. Deadlio calculates the quarter ends (5 July, 5 October, 5 January, 5 April) and each due date on the 7th of the following month.
3. Visible to the whole team. The update would have shown in Due within 30 days from early July, and in Due within 7 days from 31 July – in the Overview and in the Monday email, whoever was on holiday.
4. In everyone’s calendar. The calendar feed puts each quarterly deadline into Outlook or Google Calendar.
5. Mark done after each update. The client then moves straight to the next quarter.

Lessons for any practice

• MTD for Income Tax quadruples the number of deadlines for affected clients. Annual systems will not cope.
• Agree in writing who sends each update – the client or the practice.
• Plan now for April 2027, when the threshold falls to £30,000 and many more clients join.

Related guides

• MTD for Income Tax quarterly updates
• Self Assessment deadlines
• VAT return deadlines
• All deadline guides