Personal Tax – MTD Quarters Q&A 2026 onwards

personal-tax-mtd-quarters-qa-2026-onwards

Personal Tax – MTD Quarters Q&A 2026 onwards

31st March 2026

As MTD is mandatory from 2026 onwards, there are new questions raised and we shall add answers here:

Common terms used in this KB: ‘Digital Tax Hub’ (or ‘DTH’) – At the top of PT, Digital Tax, Digital tax hub, select Trade or property. Once you have retrieved the quarters from HMRC and imported income etc, those details will appear in the ‘DTH’.

MTD screens lagging and slow for all pcs/users – Known issue which affects 26.1.10.61 version. Please contact PT Tax support and request the ’16/06/2026 MTD Slow HOTFIX’ as that has 2 downloads and instructions on what to do.

How to set up MTD and retrieve quarters for my PT clients? Read this KB on the main actions needed to set it up

Can I access training Videos and Webinars? Please read this KB here on INSIGHTS

How to link my ASA login into PT to retrieve quarters? Please read this KB here

MATCHING RESOURCE NOT FOUND  (Quarter periods will not show)- Read this KB. This means ‘HMRC do not have the quarter data in your selected period/tax year’ (Trade is using the specific period entry, Property is using the Tax Year at top of PT) and only need it for the next tax year etc.

How to get MTD data from AP to show in BT and PT? Please read this KB

Cannot manually enter data for property income/expenses? (If client is not required to do MTD quarters in a tax year eg 2026)This lock out of the income/expenses entry is triggered by the MTD registration date entry in PT (Admin/edit tax return dates/ MTD registration date). To unlock the property screens, load the affected tax year eg 2026, remove the MTD reg date, save. At the top of PT: Change year to the next tax year eg 2027, now enter in the MTD reg date, save. This will now only lock out the 2027 tax year entry screens and NOT affect 2026 – you can now enter data again for 2026. Note: Only enter a MTD registration date in the correct Tax Year. For example a date of ’05/04/2026′ should only be entered in the 2027 tax year (and not 2026 tax year – at the very top of TP, find the year selector). If you enter the MTD reg date in the wrong tax year, it may lock out the income/expense boxes for the specific tax year. If HMRC require quarters only for sole trade but not for Property in the same tax year- you can only use the CSV import tool for the affected tax year property.

Cannot submit a Quarter as ‘button is greyed out’? Go to Submissions (on left side) / Previous submissions / it will list every submission sent or rejected – open the relevant row to see the report.

How to edit and send amended quarter data? (after it was Accepted) There are HMRC rules on amending Quarter submissions: 
1) You can use the ‘RESET STATUS’ button – open the relevant quarter, at the bottom. If you reset, it reopens the period and thus allows you to resubmit the values with your edits HOWEVER be careful because HMRC have a deadline for each quarter! if you pass this deadline, you cant submit it again and is rejected (There are no auto warnings of deadlines before submitting) AND your visual record in PT MTD will show a quarter not completed even tho HMRC have received it (and you cant manually change this status).  If you are unsure of the deadline or you know its now passed then do method 2) below instead or wait for step 3) to be launched
2) Amend rule permitted by HMRC – you can resubmit just the 4th quarter – add in any edits/missing values so HMRC gets the Full and complete records for all the quarters.  3) IRIS Developers are looking to add a new ‘adjustment’ button on the upcoming version 26.2 to allow edits instead of using the ‘reset status’ a period or using the 4th quarter 

‘Unmatched record’ – and lists trades names: This pop up cannot be forced to show/or stopped from showing: It will list the trade name at the top of the pop up and required for you to check if its matches. Highlight the relevant row and click ‘OK’ if its matches (You may have multiple trades etc and it may even show if only one trade exists). If you are unsure, then cancel and then contact HMRC because they may have a different name for the trade on their side.

‘Match IRIS records’ like employment / bank account details for other types of income which isn’t Trade/Property? – This is a HMRC designed MTD, users will need to match information like bank details coming from HMRC to avoid duplicating records. HMRC would have collated this information from other submissions, such as RTI for payroll and CGT etc. This will be the case for Employment, Benefits, Capital Gains, Interest etc. You will need to match the records as there is no way around it.

5th row: Adjustments and Allowances section, states ‘Display purposes only entries will not be submitted’ (This is the 5th section below the four quarters). This screen cannot be edited in DTH, this is by design as It is finalised and submitted like the other quarters but is an annual submission for the entire year. The listed total income/expenses values are for information purposes only.

If you need to make extra adjustments to just the income/expenses –read the rules on ‘How to edit/send amended quarter data?’ before you use this option, make edit to the income/expenses and import the values in and resubmit the quarter. Now check the adjustments row and submit it when all correct. OR make these adjustments in the 4th Quarter only so HMRC gets the full complete values.

If there are any capital allowances or annual adjustments then it needs to be actioned then its not to be done in MTD but in the PT trade, profession and vocation screens, open the relevant period, open the tab ‘Adjustments, losses etc’ OR ‘Capital Allowances’ make edits here.

IBrowser instance is null. If you get this error then change ‘Tax year’ (eg if it was on 2027, change to 2026 or vice versa) and go to Period Settings, use the retrieve periods button again. If you keep getting this for all years then deactivate any antivirus/any other security mechanisms installed and try again.

If a client falls under the income threshold (eg below £20K)? Once mandated by HMRC, a taxpayer remains in MTD for a minimum of three years even if the qualifying income falls below the respective threshold, unless they terminate the self employment and inform HMRC via the software. They may still be required to send rental figures via MTD if they had both. The clients should however consult HMRC guidance first.

4 Quarters are missing in DTH when they appeared before. When in MTD DTH screen you could see the 4 quarters but when i exit and went back into MTD, the 4Qs are missing (just shows the 5th adjustment row, see below). This is a random refreshing issue – just open the Relevant period/Or property section – go to ‘Period Settings’ tab and click ‘Retrieve periods’ – it should say completed and now reopen MTD DTH, the 4Qs should show again.

Multiple properties – How to import rent/expenses etc per property? You will need to assign all entries to one of the multiple properties – on the IMPORT screens once you have downloaded the CSV file, click on the header “Property” and you will see the list of all the properties saved in PT.

Does IRIS offer any non-bridging software? Answer: We have an IRIS Kashflow/Cashbook solution (Cashbook is free to our IAS Tax users dependent on license limits)

HMRC ‘MFA’ login – how it affects PT MTD? The 2026 onwards HMRC MFA (multi-factor authentication) rules will not affect PT MTD, it only applies if users login to the HMRC website directly (and not via PT).

The training videos imply that data could be manually input into excel and converted to a CSV for upload. Is this deemed to be digital? Answer: HMRC does in fact accept excels as digital record keeping and IRIS has functionality to consume transactional data electronically which passes digital link rules and so yes this is acceptable

Why are the MTD periods showing incorrectly (eg 6 April 2025 to 5 January 2026)? This is a HMRC decision: When the user retrieves period data from HMRC, the period returned is based on HMRC’s cumulative reporting structure, NOT the full tax year. HMRC does not return data up to the end of the tax year (5 April) unless the taxpayer is already in that period. Instead, HMRC returns: Start date: the start of the tax year (always 6 April), and End date: the end of the current quarterly update period that the taxpayer is currently in. This means the end date changes depending on when the retrieval is performed: So if a retrieval is triggered today 19 November 2025, HMRC considers the user to be in Quarter 3, so the cumulative period it returns is 6 April 2025 to 5 January 2026, once the date passes 5 January 2026, the same retrieval will return 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026 because the client will then be in Quarter 4, which is the final cumulative period of the year.

What are the ‘Status types’ for each quarter in DTH? 1. Awaiting Action, 2. In Progress, 3. Approved, 4. Rejected. If you use the ‘Reset Status’ option for a specific quarter it will change the status to ‘Awaiting Action’. You cannot manually change this status.

Reasons why submission was REJECTED: If the status says ‘REJECTED’ then go to Submissions (on left side) / Previous submissions / it will list every submission sent or rejected – open the relevant row to see the report

Rejection ‘Cannot move backwards/cannot be earlier then existing submission’– This means the specific quarter you tried to submit has passed the HMRC deadline, this quarter cannot be submitted by PT MTD. If HMRC has already received this quarter submission from a earlier time then keep a note/record to state the PT MTD quarter row has been accepted but it cant be updated on the DTH screens. If the specific quarter needed to be sent as HMRC never received it/or was never sent, then go to the 4th quarter and add in the missing values as one combined value and submit it, so HMRC will receive the correct total.

Why it shows the same values on all quarters and Reporting types of the quarters? In specific reports it will list the per quarters values as a cumulative total which include any prior quarters. This is by HMRC design. For example Quarter 1 income is £1000, Q2 income is £500, Q3 is £0 and Q4 is £0. When you run certain reports which lists the 4 quarters it may a £1500 per quarter, rather then £1000 for 1st and £500 for 2nd and if you only enter for Q1- this value will appear on Q2/3/4 as well. Only specific reports will use the cumulative totals.

Get ‘Business ID is blank’ when open a period or retrieve periods – this means when PT is linking your ASA login with HMRC, they cannot find the trade or property. When clicking ‘Retrieve periods’. Click on the button from the ‘Period Settings’ screen, you would have to select the correct business from the “Unmatched record screen” and Click OK. This will match the trade with your client and HMRC MTD. if that doesn’t work then 1) Check the clients NI code and ensure it matches the one saved from the HMRC side and then ensure the Client exists as MTD registered in your ASA account. 2) If the Sole trade is saved under the type ‘Partnership’ then its because HMRC is comparing the type, so they do not match and you get the error – read this KB. 3) Reset your ASA login under Authorised agents and log in again (Do not use the option ‘Agent services account sign up). 4) Ensure you have created the next trade period and also loaded the next tax year and try again under the next period/new year.

Error FORMAT VALUE the value must be between -9999etc and 999etc. Path Period expenses: (A specific expense is mentioned here). This is a known defect linked to the Excel file/MTD issue. We are planning to release a fix in the upcoming Service pack Mid May 2026.

Property expenses are correct on Property screen but in MTD DTH looks incorrect for a Quarter. Its by design, the reason why property expenses look different in MTD is because PT has to auto ‘group’ certain expenses together into 6 specific types, these types are used in DTH See this KB (You can see the DTH totals add up the expenses total). Also why a loan type 16/17 etc wont show in Q1/2/3 and only shows in Q4, this is a visual error and we are looking to fix this so the loan 17 will show in Q1/2/3 as expected. To be fixed in Early August 2026 v26.2 (date TBC).

Property Residential loans type 16/17 values incorrect on Tax comp/Residential relief comp and it only appears in MTD Quarter 4: The IRIS Development team is investigating both two issues. NOTE: When running MTD for a client – you effectively do not need to run the PT tax comp/residential relief comps, as MTD report picks up the information (see the Q4 matter below) and you only need to submit via MTD. If you do need to print the affected comps (So show the breakdown of information), then go to Administration | Edit Tax Return Dates- remove the ‘MTD registration date’, save it, and now run the reports (you may need to delete the loans and type them back in if they are still incorrect) then the PT comps will show the correct value, then add back in the ‘MTD registration date’ so MTD is now working again. Why loans only show in Quarter 4 and omitted from Q1/2/3? – This is a visual error and HMRC will still receive the correct data if you submit now. We plan to fix both issues in later IRIS versions to show the loans in the correct quarters and allow PT to show the correct data on the comps.

Property ‘Calendar periods’ For Example: 1st April to 30 June, 1 July to 30 Sept, 1 Oct to 31 Dec, 1 Jan to 31 Mar. No this is not available in PT MTD. IRIS Development team have checked with HMRC and they confirm the Calendar accounting period information is not collected for property businesses.

Sole Trader ‘Calendar periods‘ – You can tick the greyed out box only if the account period end date is ’31/03/YYYY’ (see image below 31/03/2027 and it allows to be ticked), now click Retrieve Periods again and it may then retrieve periods ending in calendar quarters AND ONLY IF HMRC send them back that way (so if dates do not change then HMRC may not have those dates on their side). Also as soon as the 1st Quarter shows as ‘fulfilled’, you cant tick/untick it anymore.

The MTD registration date is now linked to the tick box ‘Traditional rather then cash basis’. If you have a MTD reg date saved and you match your sole trade and get the quarters to show – the tick box ‘Traditional rather then cash basis’ can be ticked/saved (open the period/ business details tab). If you have a MTD date and not matched/no quarters show – you cannot save this tick box as its required by HMRC due to MTD rules.

When importing a CSV file for the Quarters get a error? Review the original excel/csv – its because it may have a empty 2nd row at the very top below the headers (the empty space is in yellow) – just make sure that top space is filled in (eg move everything up one row) and that stops the error as its warning you theres a empty row etc

It should look like this

‘Resource Forbidden and mentions a non trade/property income and API?’ These can be ignored as they do not stop you from doing work on the trade/ property quarter periods. These may appear against capital gains, interest or even retrieving quarter data etc. Our Development team are also reviewing these pop ups and will update this KB once we have further news.

Cannot get the HMRC login screen to show on a PT client? You need to signin with your ASA but the HMRC screen wont show

1. Ensure the PT client you are on has data entered for the tax year – eg usually Sole trade/property entries. If there is no data at all the HMRC pop will never show.
2. If there is data but the popup wont show, then read this KB here as it can be environmental etc

What does ‘Agent is responsible for MTD obligation’ tick box do? It is currently only used for information and doesn’t restrict/limit usage to the client or user.

Why it shows income data even tho there is no data imported? (in the DTH screen on the bottom middle) Answer: This is what HMRC have received in the prior/past for the quarters, as they keep a record on what was submitted even when it has deleted it from PT.

Get Error: ‘SERVER ERROR’. This is normally caused by HMRC doing maintenance and work on their servers which may stop the processing of MTD retrieval and submissions. This may also happen if their servers have technical issue. Check with HMRC support.

Get Error: ‘RULE INCORRECT EMPTY BODY SUBMITTED’. If you are trying to submit ‘Any other income’ when the error appears saying that this cannot be matched. This is planned to be fixed in the Early August 2026 IRIS version (date TBC).

Used other software like Kashflow/XERO to submit the quarters and are all accepted but the DTH screens top right and left side say the 4 quarters are still ‘In progress/awaiting action’ etc – why? Look at the bottom right of the DTH screen (see image below) showing the quarters – this is what HMRC has actually received (eg ‘Obligation met’). So you can ignore the rest of the DTH screens as the MTD Development team look to enhance this screen in a future update to help explain this.

Make edits in PT AFTER my quarters are submitted using Kashflow/XERO? You can either make the adjustment via KF/Xero (then retrieve HMRC data in PT) OR you can import data via a CSV into PT with the the correct cumulative values and proceed to ‘Review & Amend’ for the year end submissions, that will give you the comparative HMRC (KF/xero submitted) versus the IRIS values table to check before finalising and submitting year end.