Making a calendar election for MTD in untied

Not in MTD

If you are not in MTD, you can only file up for periods ending 5 April in untied.

In MTD - calendar elections

This help article explains what a calendar quarter election is under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment, when to use it, and what to watch out for.

What is a calendar quarter election?

Effectively a calendar quarter election sets your accounting year to run from 1 April to 31 March instead of the default tax year 6 April to 5 April.

This also affects the quarterly updates sent to HMRC. By default, these follow tax‑year quarters (in practice we always send year to date figures, so after Q3 we are filing from 6 April to 5 January):

Q1: 6 April to 5 July
Q2: to 5 October
Q3: to 5 January
Q4: to 5 April

However, you can choose to use calendar quarters instead (again in practice we always send year to date figures, so after Q3 we are filing from 1 April to 31 December):

Q1: 1 April to 30 June
Q2: to 30 September
Q3: to 31 December
Q4: to 31 March

Choosing calendar quarters is known as making a calendar quarter election.

The quarterly update submission deadlines are the same

The deadline is always the 7th of the month after the end of the quarter so:

7 August
7 November
7 February
7 May

Why choose calendar quarters?

Some people prefer calendar quarters, though the default in untied is the tax quarter. If you have large income received 1-5 April and few expenses, it also defers the tax that may be due.

How to make the election

Calendar quarter elections cannot be made through HMRC’s online services. Instead, the option must be selected within untied.

To do this, navigate to your income sources on the main Making Tax Digital page.

Then press the cog settings icon, choose whether you are on standard or calendar quarters and press save.

It’s important to make the election before submitting your first quarterly update for the tax year. Once that update is filed, the choice becomes locked in for the whole year.

If you are swapping from one type of reporting to another

How things show in untied, filing and the first year

In untied, transactions are still displayed by tax year. This is because other income sources such as investments etc and donations are managed by tax year.

However what we file for the relevant MTD business is based on your calendar data.

The first‑year complication

The first year of MTD introduces a one‑off issue. Although calendar Q1 runs from 1 April to 30 June, MTD obligations only begin on 6 April 2026. untied manages this for you.