What happens if you miss the 7 August MTD deadline
Miss the 7 August 2026 deadline for your Making Tax Digital for Income Tax quarterly update and, thanks to the 2026/27 soft landing, you will not get a penalty point in your first year. You still need to file it though. The soft landing does not cover your Final Declaration or late payment.
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What this means for you
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has a penalty points system that gives one point per missed deadline, not one per business even if you run more than one. At four points (the threshold for quarterly reporters), a £200 penalty applies, then another £200 for each further late submission at that threshold. Each point is removed automatically around 24 months later, HMRC counts in whole months from the month you missed it, not to the exact day, and clearing the 4-point threshold itself needs 12 months of on-time filing plus everything from the previous 24 months filed.
For 2026/27 only, and only for the April 2026 wave, HMRC is not issuing penalty points for late quarterly updates. That's the soft landing you may have heard about. It's narrower than it sounds: it doesn't touch your Final Declaration, and it doesn't touch late payment penalties, which run on their own separate percentage-based regime.
Practically, that means the best move is still to file as soon as you can. All four quarterly updates for the year need to be filed before HMRC will accept your Final Declaration, so a late one now still has to be cleared before that later deadline.
No penalty point does not mean no deadline
People often read "soft landing" as removing every penalty in the first year. It does not. It removes one specific consequence (a penalty point) from one specific thing (a late quarterly update) for one specific year. Late payment of any tax you owe is a different regime entirely, and it isn't softened by this easement.
Common questions
Does the soft landing mean I can just skip the deadline?
No. You still need to file. The easement only means no penalty point for a late quarterly update in 2026/27, it is not permission to skip filing, and all four quarterly updates must still be filed before your Final Declaration is accepted.
Does the soft landing cover late payment too?
No. Late payment penalties run on a separate, percentage-based regime, and the soft landing does not affect them.
Does the soft landing cover the Final Declaration?
No. Penalty points can apply to a late Final Declaration from day one. The easement is for quarterly updates only.
Will this soft landing happen again next year?
No. It applies to 2026/27 only, for the April 2026 (wave 1) cohort. From 2027/28 onwards, late quarterly updates are back on the normal points system.