Subbies who haven’t started can still be filed and finished in under an hour
More than 864,000 sole traders and landlords have until 7 August 2026 to send HMRC their first quarterly update under Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax. Among them are hundreds of thousands of construction subcontractors: the fitters, plasterers, sparkies, brickies and groundworkers paid under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS).
Plenty of them have not started. With two weeks to go, the job is a lot smaller than the noise around it.
With invoices and expenses to hand, a subbie can get the whole quarter into CIS Invoice and submitted in under an hour. Most will do it quicker.
The first thing to know is what the update is not.
It is not a tax return.
It is a short summary of income and expenses for 6 April to 5 July, sent straight to HMRC through recognised software. No forms, no accountant’s waiting room, no shoebox of receipts. Some report on calendar quarters instead, 1 April to 30 June. Either way the deadline is 7 August.
“We hear the same thing on every site. The wife does my invoices at the weekend. That worked when it was once a year. It doesn’t work when HMRC wants a summary every three months.
Do the invoice on the phone when you come off site and the quarterly update builds itself. She gets her Saturdays back and you get a proper set of records.”
Paul Edwards, founder, Aperture Works
CIS Invoice, recognised by HMRC as compatible software, was built for the trade and MTD tax scheme. There is no chart of accounts, no bank reconciliation and no bookkeeping language to learn.
A subbie who has never touched accounting software can send a compliant invoice within minutes of downloading it.
The workflow is the one they already use. Pick the days worked, set a day rate, price or hourly rate, and the app handles the CIS deduction, 20%for registered subcontractors, and puts it plainly on the PDF the contractor gets. Come quarter end, the app has already totalled every invoice and every expense. Submitting to HMRC is a case of checking the numbers and pressing one button.
Submitting costs nothing. The MTD submission is free on both tiers. Records stay on the user’s own phone and nothing passes through Aperture Works servers.
Many subbies are handing the problem to an accountant or a bookkeeper. That is a fair choice, but it is not a shortcut. The accountant still cannot file anything without the underlying records, and most are taking the client on for the year rather than fixing a single quarter.
What HMRC has said about penalties
HMRC has confirmed that NO penalty points will be issued for late quarterly updates during the first year of MTD for Income Tax. Penalties still apply for late Self-Assessment returns and late payments.
From year two, a points-based system starts. One point per missed quarterly deadline, and a £200 fixed penalty once four points build up. Points expire after a period of compliance.
So, there is no fine for a late first update. But the quarterly update does not replace the annual tax return, which is still due by 31 January.
Full HMRC release: gov.uk/government/news/deadline-approaches-for-first-making-tax-digital-quarterly-update
“There’s a lot of worry about this and most of it is premature. There’s no fine this year. What has actually changed is that the records have to exist from now on. And nobody is going to learn an accounts package in a fortnight. The big packages are built for businesses with a bookkeeper. This one is built for a fitter with a phone and a day rate.”
Paul Edwards, founder, Aperture Works
Not signed up yet?
Anyone with combined qualifying income over £50,000 from self-employment and property who has not yet signed up can still do so on GOV.UK: gov.uk/guidance/sign-up-for-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax
CIS Invoice links straight to the sign-up page from inside the app, then walks users through connecting to HMRC with their Government Gateway login and National Insurance number.
The 7 August deadline is only the start
MTD extends to those earning more than £30,000 from April 2027, and more than £20,000 from April 2028. That pulls in a far larger share of the UK’s self-employed construction workforce.
If you can send an invoice, you can send a quarterly update.
CIS Invoice is free to download. Search “CIS Invoice” on the App Store or Google Play.
Or following the link from our website https://cis-invoice.co.uk/
