Making Tax Digital · Sole traders
Last-minute MTD questions: missing receipts, tax payments and submission status
ONLY£15A MONTHNear a filing deadline, a few practical questions often determine the next step.
Near a filing deadline, a few practical questions often determine the next step. Missing evidence, a tax estimate and an uncertain submission outcome are different problems. Identify which one you have before deciding whether to correct records, contact support or check your HMRC account.
Can I claim an expense if the receipt is missing?
Try to recover the evidence from the supplier account, email, order history or a replacement invoice. A bank payment can support that money was spent, but may not explain what was purchased or whether it was business use. Do not invent a receipt or guess an amount to complete a category.
Do I need to pay tax when I send the update?
Sending a quarterly update does not itself create a new quarterly tax-payment demand. Existing Self Assessment liabilities and payments on account still need attention on their own timetable. Check actual amounts due separately from provisional software estimates.
What if the software shows an error?
Record the business, period, action and message. Establish whether HMRC accepted anything before retrying. A request reference, loading screen or saved draft is not necessarily a completed submission.
Can I correct something later?
Correct identified errors in the underlying records promptly and follow the supported cumulative-update or annual-amendment process. The ability to correct an error is not a reason to knowingly submit fabricated figures.
Worked example: an unclear supplier payment
A £180 debit appears near quarter end with no receipt attached. The business retrieves the supplier invoice and discovers £30 relates to a private purchase. It records the supported business amount and retains the split.
Guessing that the entire payment was deductible would have created an avoidable error. The useful action was recovering the evidence, not merely choosing a plausible category.
A review that checks more than the total
Start with coverage: the correct person, business and period, plus all relevant accounts and cash records. Then look at completeness. A feed can be connected today while still missing an earlier week. Confirm the earliest and latest transactions against the source.
Next, inspect unusual items. Large transfers, loan receipts, refunds, net settlements and private purchases often need more context than a bank description provides. Check for duplicate imports where a statement overlaps a live feed. An automatic warning is useful evidence to investigate, not proof that the entry must be removed.
Finally, review category totals. A category unexpectedly showing zero, a large increase or a negative amount deserves an explanation. You do not have to make every annual tax adjustment at this stage, but you should understand the records behind the summary you approve.
HMRC explains what quarterly updates contain. Keep the approved version and the resulting acknowledgement together. If something later changes, correct the source record and use the software's supported update process so you can explain which figures are current.
Understand the first-year concession
HMRC states that there are no penalties for missing quarterly-update deadlines for the 2026/27 tax year. That concession does not remove the digital-record or quarterly-reporting obligations, and it does not make all tax returns and payments penalty-free. Read the precise penalty guidance.
Outstanding quarterly reporting must be dealt with before completing the relevant annual return. However, a missed August 2026 update should not be described as an automatic penalty on the separate 2025/26 return due in January 2027. The 2026/27 annual-return deadline is January 2028.
After the first-year concession, the points rules apply to missed quarterly deadlines as described by HMRC. Do not assume that multiple businesses create multiple points at the same deadline. Annual-return rules, late-payment penalties and interest require their own checks.
If you have fallen behind, establish what is outstanding and work through the supported catch-up process. Keep evidence of technical problems and contact the appropriate support team with the business, period and error details. The useful next step is a complete record and an accepted update, rather than guessing what a generic warning might mean.
Keep the evidence connected to the figures
Your digital record should explain the amount, date and nature of the transaction. Keep the invoice, receipt, statement or other evidence that supports it. A photograph can make a paper document easier to retain, but a folder of photographs alone does not create complete transaction records.
For sole traders, HMRC normally requires business records to be kept for at least five years after the relevant 31 January filing deadline. Keep them longer where the rules for a late return, enquiry or other circumstances require it. Check the record-retention guidance.
Make the records usable by your future self. Include a short explanation where a bank description is vague, retain the calculation behind a business-use split and make corrections traceable. For a missing receipt, try the supplier account, email confirmation or a replacement invoice before relying on incomplete evidence.
At review time, compare your records with the bank or payment account and investigate differences. Equal totals are useful, but two errors can cancel each other out. A sample of individual transactions can reveal a duplicated purchase or an omitted customer receipt that a totals-only check misses.
Use the right route for the remaining question
Ask product support about access or technical outcomes, and seek tax review where the treatment is uncertain. Keep a concise record of the issue and resolution. If the deadline has passed, complete the required work through the catch-up process.
Take the next step
Avona.app offers a self-service route from £15/month. Bring your records together, review the figures and choose a workflow that fits your business. For professional help, discuss the scope and total price of Avona Concierge, managed by chartered accountants, before choosing a service.