Switch to calendar quarterly update periods for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
This article explains how to set up calendar quarterly update periods for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax using FreeAgent.
Please note:
- FreeAgent’s MTD for Income Tax functionality is currently in pilot. Therefore, you’ll only have access to the functionality if your business is eligible for HMRC’s pilot scheme and meets FreeAgent’s eligibility criteria.
- This functionality is not currently available for unincorporated landlord FreeAgent accounts. However, we plan to support this shortly and will let you know once it is available.
- If you wish to switch to calendar quarterly update periods, you must do so before the first update is made for the tax year in question.
- If you have a FreeAgent Practice Dashboard, you’ll need to switch to your client’s account to follow the steps below once you’ve set up your practice for MTD for Income Tax and signed up your clients.
HMRC requires anyone registered for MTD for Income Tax to keep digital records and send totals for each income and expense category to HMRC every quarter. We do not send individual transactional data to HMRC since this is not required. The quarterly updates can be submitted from after the end of the quarter and are currently due one month and five days after the end of the quarter. From April 2026, this deadline will be extended to one month and seven days.
The table in FreeAgent provides a useful timeline of each quarterly update period and when it is due to be submitted.
What’s the difference between standard quarterly update periods and calendar quarterly update periods?
By default, your quarterly updates will be set automatically to so-called ‘standard quarters’ by HMRC. The standard quarterly periods are based on the tax year and the quarters cover the following periods:
- Q1: 6th April to 5th July
- Q2: 6th July to 5th October
- Q3: 6th October to 5th January
- Q4: 6th January to 5th April
Alternatively, you can choose to use calendar update periods which end on the last day of the month. This may make your record keeping simpler if your accounting period ends on 31st March. If you wish to use calendar quarters instead of standard quarters, you must select calendar update periods before you make your first quarterly update for the tax year in question. The calendar update periods cover the following periods:
- Q1: 1st April (or 6th April if you’re switching to calendar quarters) to 30th June
- Q2: 1st July to 30th September
- Q3: 1st October to 31st December
- Q4: 1st January to 31st March (or 5th April if you’re switching away from calendar quarters)
Switching to calendar quarters
Navigate to the ‘Taxes’ tab at the top of the screen and select ‘Self Assessment’ from the drop-down menu.
Select the relevant tax year from either the list on the left-hand side of the panel or from the 'History' drop-down menu.
Select ‘Edit Details’ at the top-right of the screen.
Select whether this is the first tax year you’re filing for MTD for Income Tax.
Then, select ‘Calendar year quarters’ for the question ‘Which dates would you like to use for your quarterly submissions in this tax year?’
Select ‘Save Changes’ at the bottom of the screen to complete the process. Your quarterly periods will then update to align with calendar quarters.
Please note that if this is your first year filing under MTD for Income Tax, your first quarterly period must start on 6th April. After that, the remaining quarterly periods will follow calendar start and end dates for the tax year as set out above.