Boxed Off Accounts

Boxed Off Accounts › Missed one

Making Tax Digital

Missed one? It’s a job, not a crisis.

There are no penalty points for a late quarterly update this tax year. Here’s what that does and doesn’t mean.

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The straight answer

For the 2026/27 tax year, a late quarterly update earns no penalty points. None. Points start on 6 April 2027 - four of them brings a £200 penalty, then £200 for each further miss.

The penalties for sending your annual return late, or paying late, work exactly as they always have. Those haven’t changed and they still apply.

So if someone’s told you there’s a fine coming for the August update, they’re wrong. What’s true is that the update still has to be sent, the records still have to exist, and the pile gets bigger the longer it’s left.

What being late actually costs you right now

From HMRC, for the update itself: nothing this year. From your own time: the records. A quarterly update is a summary of income and costs for three months, sent from recognised software. The sending takes minutes. What takes time is having the three months of records in the software to send.

Three months behind is an evening. Seven is a weekend. By January it’s a job you’ll pay someone to do anyway.

What to do

  1. Don’t panic, and don’t pay anyone who tells you to.
  2. Get the records straight from 6 April. Everything in and out, through the bank or in cash, since the start of the tax year.
  3. Send the missed one. It’s simply late, not lost. Figures can be corrected later - that’s what the year-end return is for.
  4. Then the next date is 7 November. Same again, for July to September.

Or hand it over

If you’d rather never think about one of these again, that’s what we do. We catch you up from April, file what’s outstanding, and take every deadline after that off you. From £29 a month, plus a catch-up for the months already gone, spread over your first six payments with nothing added for spreading. You get the exact figure on the call, in writing, before you say yes.

Not convinced once we’ve filed your first one? Every penny back.

Not sure if you’re even in it?

Up to six questions, about a minute, answer on screen. If you’re not in, we’ll say so and that’s the end of it.

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General information about how the rules work, correct as at September 2026. Not advice about your own tax position. Software is HMRC-recognised.