Help Centre · MTD ITSA · 1 min read

Quarterly updates: sending an update to HMRC

Sending a quarterly update: reading the values, confirming the declaration, and amending a quarter after it has gone.

The heart of MTD is the quarterly update: four times a year, for each business, you send HMRC a running total of that source’s income and expenses. Quarterly Submissions lists them, grouped by business, with each quarter’s dates, due date and status.

The Quarterly Submissions list grouped by business, each quarter showing period, dates, due date and Ready to submit status

Filling a quarter

Open a quarter to see its Values — income at the top, then expenses split into allowable and disallowable. These come from the spreadsheet you upload (see Keeping digital records). Check them against your records before sending.

A UK property quarter showing the income and expense values

Sending it

When the figures are right, press Send Quarter. You confirm a short declaration — that the figures are accurate — and Tax Optimiser sends the update to HMRC.

The declaration dialog confirming the quarter's figures are accurate, with the period totals shown beneath

Each quarter’s figures are cumulative — you are sending the year-to-date total for that source, so a later update naturally supersedes an earlier one. Once accepted, the quarter shows as Completed.

A completed quarter with submission status Completed

Amending and audit

Made a mistake or had a late invoice? Re-open the quarter, update the figures and send again to amend it. The Audit Log tab keeps a record of every submission for that quarter, so you can always see what was sent and when.

Next: Annual adjustments.

The short version

Quarterly updates: sending an update to HMRC — in brief

Quarterly Submissions lists four updates a year per business, each with its dates, due date and status.

Open a quarter to check its income and expense values (from your uploaded spreadsheet), then Send Quarter and confirm the declaration to file it with HMRC.

Figures are cumulative year-to-date; you can re-open and amend a quarter, and the Audit Log records every submission.