Making Tax Digital reminder texts for accountants

The second Making Tax Digital deadline of the year falls on Saturday 7 November 2026. After the first one, on 7 August, on 12 August it said "more than 436,000 sole traders and landlords" had sent their first quarterly update and "over 570,000 customers" had signed up. Its own count of people in scope, three weeks earlier, was "more than 864,000". HMRC hasn't said how the difference splits between late senders, people not yet signed up and people waiting for HMRC to sign them up. Whatever the mix, it's the kind of gap Making Tax Digital reminder texts are good at closing, because the deadlines are fixed and the records you chase are the same every quarter.

What follows picks up where our post on Self Assessment reminder texts left off, so the 31 January return gets less space here.

Who is in, and from when

HMRC's guidance says a sole trader or landlord registered for Self Assessment has to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax when their qualifying income from self-employment and property is over the threshold for the tax year it looks at. That's over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025 for those who started on 6 April 2026, over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026 for those starting on 6 April 2027, and over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027 for those starting on 6 April 2028. Partnerships come later, and HMRC says it will publish their timeline separately.

The numbers behind each phase come from HMRC's own estimates. Its impact note, updated in September 2025, expected "a further 970,000" to join from April 2027. Its March 2026 note on the £20,000 threshold says lowering it brings "approximately 970,000 additional individuals into scope" from April 2028. Add those to the 864,000 in the first phase and HMRC's estimates come to about 2.8 million people by April 2028, roughly three times the first group, every one of them with the same four dates.

HMRC writes to people it thinks are in scope after reviewing their return, but the guidance is blunt that a missing letter changes nothing: "it is still your responsibility to check". For the April 2027 group, the return that decides it is the 2025 to 2026 one, due by 31 January 2027. Some clients can be exempt, the digitally excluded among them, and an authorised agent can apply on a client's behalf. HMRC's exemption page adds that where an agent keeps the digital records and submits them, the client "may not need to apply" for a digital exclusion exemption at all.

What HMRC's first-quarter figures show

HMRC's August release doesn't give a late or missing count, and the in-scope and sign-up numbers come from different weeks, so the chart is a rough picture. It's still a useful one. On 5 February 2026 HMRC had more than 12,000 quarterly updates from its voluntary testing programme. Six months later it had over 436,000 from the first mandatory quarter. HMRC also said that from September 2026 it would "begin signing up customers" who should be in the service but hadn't joined, in stages.

For a practice, those signed-up-by-HMRC clients are the ones to watch. Some will get HMRC's letter before they've chosen any software, with a deadline already behind them. A text asking them to forward the letter or call to book a set-up session is cheaper than discovering in January that nothing was ever sent.

Four deadlines, the same every year

Quarterly updates are cumulative. GOV.UK explains that each one "covers from the start of the current tax year (6 April) to the end of the update period", built from the digital records by the software. HMRC gets category totals and "will not receive details of individual receipts or invoices". There are two sets of periods, and the deadlines are the same for both.

A few details from the same page shape the reminders. An update can go "any time after the end of the update period up to and including the day of the update deadline", or up to 10 days before the period ends if the client expects no more transactions (HMRC's example is someone going on holiday). A client who earned and spent nothing in the quarter "must still send" an update to say so, which is the one most likely to be forgotten. And the choice between standard and calendar periods is fixed for the tax year once the first update has gone.

The deadline days move around the week. In this cycle 7 November 2026 is a Saturday and 7 February 2027 a Sunday, which pushes any sensible chase into the week before.

What late costs, this year and next

For 2026 to 2027 there's some breathing room. HMRC "will not apply penalty points for late quarterly updates during the 2026 to 2027 tax year". The updates still have to be sent before the client can submit their return through software, and penalty points still apply to late returns.

From 2027 to 2028 each missed quarterly deadline earns a point (so does a late return), with only one point per deadline however many businesses the client has. At four points there's a £200 penalty, then another £200 for every deadline missed after that. Below four, each point drops off 24 months after the deadline it was given for. Once someone reaches four, the points only clear when they've been on time for 12 months and sent anything outstanding from the previous 24.

Late payment penalties sit alongside. Under the new rules, nothing is charged on tax paid up to 15 days late. For 2026 to 2027 the charge is 3% of the tax owed at day 15 and another 3% at day 30, with interest at 10% a year on what's still owed charged daily from day 31 for up to two years, and both percentages rise to 4% for 2027 to 2028. Clients in their first year have 30 days to pay or set up a payment plan before the penalties start.

Is an MTD reminder a marketing text?

Not when it goes to an existing client about work you do for them. The ICO's direct marketing guidance describes service messages as ones that "aren't promotional but are for administrative or customer services purposes", and says the rules "don't stop you from telling your customers important information that they need to know as part of their relationship with you". A neutral request for receipts so you can file a client's update fits that description, so no marketing consent is needed and no opt-out line has to go on the end.

It flips the moment the text sells something. The ICO says a service message with "elements that are direct marketing, even if that is not the main purpose of your message" counts as marketing. "Send us your Q2 receipts, and ask about our new bookkeeping bundle" is a marketing text. So is a message to people who aren't clients yet offering to get them ready for April 2027, which needs consent or the soft opt-in and a way to opt out every time.

Making Tax Digital reminder texts through the quarter

The set below covers one quarter, written for a practice called Fairley Accountants with the client's details merged in. Shift the dates for each period and the pattern holds all year.

Five days before the period ends, so the client knows the cut-off is coming:

Fairley Accountants: your Making Tax Digital quarter closes on Mon 5 Oct. Please send receipts and invoices up to that date by Fri 16 Oct, or add them in your app. No income this quarter? Reply NIL and we'll still file it.

A chase about ten days before the deadline, for anyone whose records haven't arrived:

Fairley Accountants: we're still waiting on your records to 5 Oct. Your quarterly update is due to HMRC by Sat 7 Nov, so we need them by Thu 29 Oct. Reply if anything's holding you up.

The confirmation, once the update has gone:

Fairley Accountants: your quarterly update to 5 Oct has gone to HMRC. Your HMRC online account will show "You sent a quarterly update". Next one covers up to 5 Jan and is due 7 Feb.

For clients who send their own updates from their software and use you for the year end:

Fairley Accountants: reminder that your quarterly update to 5 Oct is due to HMRC by Sat 7 Nov. Send it from your software as before. Want us to look over the figures first? Reply and we'll book 15 minutes.

And once the 2025 to 2026 returns are in, one for each client who crosses the next threshold:

Fairley Accountants: your 2025 to 2026 figures put you over the £30,000 Making Tax Digital threshold, so quarterly updates start for you on 6 Apr 2027. We'll be in touch in February to set up your software.

A few habits run through all five. The practice name comes first, because a text about tax from a sender the client can't place looks a lot like the scams HMRC warns about. None of them asks for a UTR, a Government Gateway password or bank details; our Self Assessment post goes through HMRC's scam warnings. Each one has a date, and each asks for at most one thing. The NIL reply matters more than it looks, since a nil update is still an update and the client who earned nothing is the one who assumes there's nothing to send.

Setting it up once a year

The dates don't move, which makes this one of the easier things to automate. Keep MTD clients in their own contact list, imported from your practice software as a CSV, with a column for how each client works (you file, or they file) so you can split the list. Custom columns become merge fields, so one message can carry each client's name and period end.

In CaptiFi Connect, campaigns and single texts can be scheduled up to a year ahead, so a practice can set up the next four quarters in one sitting and cancel any that stop being needed (the credits come back). Campaigns add an opt-out line by default; for a pure service reminder like these you can switch it off per campaign. Campaign quiet hours hold campaign texts between 21:00 and 09:00 London time by default. Replies come back into a shared two-way inbox, so "NIL", "sent them yesterday" and "who is this?" all land with whoever is doing the chasing, and the delivery report on each text shows which clients never got the reminder in the first place. If you'd rather keep the wording in one place, save each one as a template and reuse it each quarter.

Practice software that already holds the deadlines can do the same through the API: a call to POST /messages with a schedule_at time for each client, and a webhook back when they reply.

Common questions

When are the Making Tax Digital quarterly deadlines?

The deadlines are 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. They're the same whether a client uses standard update periods (6 April to 5 July and so on) or calendar periods (1 April to 30 June and so on). Each update covers the tax year so far, from the start of the year to the end of the period.

Is there a penalty for a late quarterly update in 2026 to 2027?

No penalty points are given for late quarterly updates in the 2026 to 2027 tax year. The updates still have to be sent before the client can file their return through software. From 2027 to 2028 each missed deadline earns a point, and four points bring a £200 penalty.

Who has to use Making Tax Digital from April 2027?

Sole traders and landlords registered for Self Assessment whose qualifying income from self-employment and property was over £30,000 in the 2025 to 2026 tax year. HMRC reviews the 2025 to 2026 return and writes to people it thinks are in scope, but the guidance says it's still the taxpayer's responsibility to check.

Do I need consent to text clients about Making Tax Digital?

Not for neutral reminders to existing clients about work you're doing for them, which the ICO treats as service messages. You do need consent or the soft opt-in, and an opt-out in every message, for any text that promotes a service, including offers to new prospects to get them ready for Making Tax Digital.