Do Making Tax Digital quarterly updates mean paying tax every quarter?

What an update contains

Your software adds up your digital records and sends a total for each income and expense category, using the same categories as Self Assessment. HMRC does not receive your individual receipts or invoices.

Each update covers the tax year so far, from 6 April (or 1 April with calendar periods) to the end of the period. If you correct a record, the correction goes into your next update.

You do not need to make accounting or tax adjustments before sending an update. Those come at the end of the year, before your tax return.

Basis: Send quarterly updates

What you get back

After each update you can see an estimate of your tax bill for the year to date, in your software and in your HMRC online account. It is only an estimate: it is less accurate if you have other income you have not told HMRC about, or if your accounting period does not match the tax year.

Basis: Send quarterly updates

When you actually pay

Your tax return and your tax bill are due by 31 January after the tax year ends, as now. If you make payments on account, they are due on 31 January and 31 July. You do not need to make them if the tax you owed last year was less than £1,000, or if you paid more than 80% of it outside Self Assessment, for example through your tax code.

See every date for your start year on the deadlines page.

Basis: Payments on account · 436,000 sole traders and landlords make their tax digital (HMRC news)