The UK personal tax calendar is no longer centred only on the 31 January Self Assessment deadline.

From April 2026, Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax introduced quarterly reporting obligations for the first group of qualifying sole traders and landlords. This added new dates to an already busy calendar covering Self Assessment, payments on account, employment records and property-related tax reporting.

Not every deadline applies to every taxpayer. Your responsibilities depend on factors such as whether you are employed, self-employed, receive property income, complete Self Assessment or fall within the MTD for Income Tax rules.

Understanding which dates apply to you can help reduce the risk of late returns, interest, penalties and last-minute problems.

UK Personal Tax Calendar 2026 at a Glance

There is also an important deadline that does not fall on a fixed calendar date: certain disposals of UK residential property can trigger a 60-day Capital Gains Tax reporting and payment requirement.

Who Do These Tax Deadlines Apply To?

One of the easiest mistakes to make with a tax calendar is assuming that every date applies to everyone.

It does not.

An employee whose tax affairs are dealt with entirely through PAYE may have relatively few actions to take. Someone who is employed but also receives rental or investment income may have additional reporting requirements.

A sole trader or landlord within MTD for Income Tax may now have quarterly reporting obligations alongside annual tax-return requirements.

Someone selling UK residential property may face a separate Capital Gains Tax deadline based on the property’s completion date.

Use a tax calendar as a starting point, then determine which obligations apply to your circumstances. Where several sources of income, gains or tax regimes interact, professional personal tax services in the UK may help establish the relevant filing and payment requirements.

31 January 2026: Self Assessment Filing and Payment

For taxpayers completing a Self Assessment return for the 2024/25 tax year, 31 January 2026 was the main online filing and payment deadline.

By this date, taxpayers generally needed to:

• submit their 2024/25 online Self Assessment tax return;
• pay any balancing tax due for 2024/25; and
• make their first payment on account towards 2025/26, where required.

Payments on account are advance payments towards the following year’s tax bill and are normally divided between 31 January and 31 July.

They are not required in every case.

You generally do not need to make payments on account if the relevant amount of tax owed through Self Assessment was less than £1,000, or if more than 80% of the relevant tax liability was already collected outside Self Assessment, such as through PAYE.

Missing the filing or payment deadline can lead to penalties or interest. If a return or payment is already overdue, dealing with it promptly is generally better than waiting until the next filing season.

5 April 2026: End of the 2025/26 Tax Year

The UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April, so 5 April 2026 marked the end of the 2025/26 tax year.

Although this was not the deadline for submitting the 2025/26 Self Assessment return, it was an important cut-off point for tax records and many tax-year-based allowances and reliefs.

Depending on your circumstances, records may include:

• employment income;
• self-employment income;
• rental income;
• dividends;
• savings interest;
• pension income; and
• information relating to capital gains.

Maintaining these records throughout the year makes preparing a later tax return considerably easier than trying to reconstruct an entire year’s finances shortly before the filing deadline.

6 April 2026: New Tax Year and MTD Begins

The 2026/27 tax year began on 6 April 2026.

This date was particularly significant because the first compulsory phase of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax also began.

From April 2026, qualifying sole traders and landlords with qualifying income above £50,000 came within the mandatory MTD for Income Tax regime, subject to the applicable rules and exemptions. HMRC states that the 2026 entry point is based on qualifying income reported for the relevant earlier tax year.

Taxpayers within MTD generally need compatible software to maintain required digital records and send quarterly updates containing summaries of relevant business income and expenses.

What Does the £50,000 MTD Threshold Mean?

The MTD threshold should not simply be treated as a measure of someone’s total personal income.

The rules focus on qualifying income from self-employment and property.

For example, an individual may receive employment income as well as rental income. Whether MTD for Income Tax applies depends on the qualifying-income rules rather than simply adding every type of personal income together.

Taxpayers close to the threshold should therefore check their position carefully rather than assuming that total household income, salary or taxable income determines whether MTD applies.

MTD Income Tax Thresholds: 2026 to 2028

The introduction of MTD for Income Tax is being phased.

HMRC’s current framework therefore brings additional sole traders and landlords into MTD over successive tax years.

Businesses and landlords below the 2026 threshold should not automatically assume that MTD will remain irrelevant to them. Their qualifying income and the threshold applying to the relevant future tax year should be reviewed.

31 May 2026: P60 Deadline

If you were employed on 5 April 2026, your employer should normally have provided your P60 by 31 May 2026.

A P60 summarizes important information about your employment for the tax year, including taxable pay and Income Tax deducted.

Keep the document with your tax records.

It can be useful when completing Self Assessment, checking employment information and resolving discrepancies between your records and information held by HMRC.

6 July 2026: P11D Information Deadline

6 July 2026 is an important date where taxable employment benefits and expenses are involved.

Where relevant benefits have not been dealt with through payroll, employers generally need to submit the required P11D information to HMRC and provide affected employees with a copy of, or the information contained in, their P11D by the applicable deadline.

Taxable benefits can include certain company cars, private medical insurance and other benefits provided through employment.

Where benefits are payrolled, different reporting arrangements can apply.

If you complete Self Assessment, check that relevant taxable employment benefits are correctly reflected where required rather than assuming that salary shown on a P60 represents every aspect of your employment tax position.

31 July 2026: Second Payment on Account

The second Self Assessment payment on account towards the 2025/26 tax liability was due by 31 July 2026 for taxpayers required to make payments on account.

Payments on account are normally made twice:

• the first by 31 January; and
• the second by 31 July.

Each payment is generally based on half of the relevant previous year’s tax liability used for calculating payments on account.

You normally do not have to make payments on account if the relevant tax owed was below £1,000 or if more than 80% of the relevant tax was collected outside Self Assessment.

If income has fallen significantly, it may be possible to reduce payments on account.

This should be approached carefully. Reducing payments too far can result in additional tax becoming payable later and interest being charged on the shortfall.

7 August 2026: First MTD Quarterly Update

For taxpayers required to use MTD for Income Tax from April 2026, the first quarterly-update deadline was 7 August 2026.

HMRC confirms that the standard first update covers records from 6 April to 5 July.

Quarterly updates contain summaries of income and expenses from relevant self-employment and property activities. They are not themselves tax returns.

An important feature of the current system is that quarterly updates are cumulative.

Each subsequent update covers information from the start of the tax year through the end of the relevant update period rather than reporting only the latest three months.

MTD Quarterly Reporting Calendar

For taxpayers using standard update periods, the timetable is:

HMRC also permits calendar update periods in relevant circumstances. These run to 30 June, 30 September, 31 December and 31 March while retaining the same quarterly submission deadlines.

This distinction matters when organizing accounting software and digital records.

What Happens If an MTD Quarterly Update Is Late?

HMRC states that there are no penalties for missing a quarterly-update deadline during the 2026/27 tax year, the first mandatory year of MTD for Income Tax.

However, taxpayers must still maintain the required digital records and send their quarterly updates before they can submit the relevant tax return. Normal obligations relating to tax returns and tax payments continue to apply.

For tax years after 2026/27, HMRC’s points-based late-submission penalty system applies to missed quarterly-update deadlines. Under the current rules, reaching the relevant four-point threshold results in a £200 penalty, with further penalties possible for subsequent missed submissions while at the threshold.

The absence of first-year quarterly-update penalties should therefore not be interpreted as meaning that the updates are optional.

5 October 2026: Tell HMRC You Need Self Assessment

If you need to complete a Self Assessment return for the 2025/26 tax year and have not previously been required to file, 5 October 2026 is an important date.

People can become liable to Self Assessment for different reasons, including self-employment, rental income or other income that has not been fully taxed at source.

Do not assume HMRC will necessarily identify every change in your circumstances automatically.

If you tell HMRC after the normal 5 October deadline, HMRC may give you a different filing deadline depending on the circumstances. This does not necessarily change the deadline for paying the tax.

That distinction is important when dealing with a late registration.

31 October 2026: Paper Self Assessment Deadline

If you are filing a paper Self Assessment return for 2025/26, HMRC must normally receive it by 31 October 2026.

The deadline concerns receipt of the return, not simply the date it was placed in the post.

Most taxpayers now file online, which normally provides more time. Anyone choosing or required to use a paper return should therefore pay particular attention to the earlier October deadline.

7 November 2026: Second MTD Quarterly Update

The second standard MTD for Income Tax quarterly update is due by 7 November 2026.

For taxpayers using standard update periods, this update contains cumulative information covering 6 April to 5 October 2026.

It should not be treated simply as a separate report for the preceding three months.

For the 2026 calendar year, 7 August and 7 November are the two standard MTD quarterly-update deadlines that fall within the year. The third and fourth deadlines fall on 7 February and 7 May 2027.

30 December 2026: PAYE Coding Deadline

Some taxpayers can have an eligible small Self Assessment tax bill collected through their PAYE tax code rather than paying it separately.

If you want HMRC to consider collecting an eligible 2025/26 Self Assessment bill through PAYE, the online tax return normally needs to be submitted by 30 December 2026.

Among the relevant conditions, the taxpayer generally needs to:

• owe less than £3,000;
• already pay tax through PAYE, such as through employment or a company pension;
• submit the online return by the required December deadline; and
• have sufficient PAYE income for HMRC to collect the amount through the tax code.

Additional limits can apply to how much HMRC can collect through a tax code.

The normal online Self Assessment deadline remains 31 January 2027, but waiting until January can mean losing the opportunity to have an eligible bill collected through PAYE.

Property Capital Gains Tax: Remember the 60-Day Deadline

Not every personal tax deadline falls on a fixed date.

For a UK resident, where Capital Gains Tax is due following the disposal of UK residential property, the gain generally needs to be reported and the tax paid within 60 days of completion.

This can be relevant, for example, when disposing of a rental property or another residential property that does not qualify fully for Private Residence Relief.

The rules are particularly important because taxpayers may assume they can simply wait until their next Self Assessment return. For relevant residential-property disposals, that assumption can result in a missed reporting and payment deadline.

The position is different for people who are not UK resident.

HMRC states that non-UK residents must report disposals of UK property or land even where there is no tax to pay or a loss has been made.

Residency status and the type of property disposed of should therefore be considered when determining the reporting requirement.

Looking Ahead to 31 January 2027

Although it falls outside the 2026 calendar year, 31 January 2027 is the next major Self Assessment deadline to prepare for.

By that date, most taxpayers using Self Assessment will need to:

• submit their online 2025/26 tax return;
• pay any balancing tax due for 2025/26; and
• make the first payment on account towards 2026/27, where applicable.

Waiting until January to collect records can make the process unnecessarily difficult.

Preparing earlier provides more time to identify missing information, check figures, resolve discrepancies and plan for the amount of tax that will need to be paid.

Filing and Payment Deadlines Are Not Always the Same

One important principle throughout the tax calendar is that a filing deadline and a payment deadline are not necessarily interchangeable.

Receiving additional time to submit information does not automatically mean that additional time has been granted to pay the tax.

Similarly, different obligations can arise from the same transaction.

A property disposal, for example, can create a 60-day Capital Gains Tax reporting and payment requirement even though the taxpayer also completes an annual Self Assessment return.

Whenever a deadline changes because of unusual circumstances, confirm separately:

• when information or a return must be submitted; and
• when the associated tax must be paid.

This helps avoid situations where a taxpayer meets one requirement but unintentionally misses another.

How to Stay Ahead of UK Personal Tax Deadlines

Good tax management involves more than remembering 31 January.

Different deadlines can apply according to your employment, business activities, property income, investment activity and whether you fall within Making Tax Digital.

A practical approach is to maintain records throughout the year rather than treating tax preparation as an annual exercise.

Keep P60s and information relating to taxable employment benefits. Record property and self-employment income and expenses as transactions occur. If MTD applies, make sure compatible software and digital records are maintained appropriately.

Check your HMRC account and correspondence regularly, and put relevant filing and payment dates into your calendar well in advance.

If your circumstances change—for example, you start a business, become a landlord, move into a different MTD threshold or sell property—check whether the change creates an additional tax reporting requirement rather than waiting until the next Self Assessment deadline.

Final Thoughts

The UK personal tax calendar for 2026 contains considerably more than the traditional January Self Assessment deadline.

The introduction of mandatory Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from April 2026 added quarterly reporting obligations for the first group of qualifying sole traders and landlords, beginning with those above the £50,000 qualifying-income threshold. Further groups are scheduled to enter the regime as the threshold falls in 2027 and 2028.

Other important dates throughout the year relate to payments on account, P60 and P11D information, new Self Assessment registrations, paper returns and PAYE coding.

Property owners also need to remember that relevant UK residential-property disposals can create a separate 60-day Capital Gains Tax deadline, while non-UK residents face specific reporting requirements for disposals of UK property or land.

Not every deadline applies to every taxpayer. The most effective approach is to identify the obligations relevant to your circumstances, maintain accurate records throughout the year and distinguish clearly between filing, reporting and payment deadlines.

Doing so makes tax compliance less dependent on last-minute preparation and reduces the risk of overlooking an important date.

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