Self Assessment in FreeAgent

This article explains how Self Assessment works in FreeAgent.

Self Assessment is the area of FreeAgent where income tax is worked out for a personal Self Assessment tax return. This will be based on your business's accounts if you're a sole trader, your salary and dividends if you're a director of a limited company and your property income and costs if you’re an unincorporated landlord.

Please note that if you're a partner, secretary, shareholder or employee, you won't be able to use FreeAgent to file Self Assessment to HMRC. However, you will be able to refer to the information that FreeAgent generates in your FreeAgent account when you come to complete your tax return.

Once you've filed your Self Assessment return and paid your tax bill to HMRC, find out how to explain a Self Assessment payment to HMRC.

Navigating to your Self Assessment tax return

Navigate to the ‘Taxes’ tab at the top of the screen and select ‘Self Assessment’ from the drop-down menu.

Select the relevant user from the drop-down menu (if applicable). FreeAgent calculates Self Assessment for all users except those allocated the role of 'Accountant'.

Select the relevant tax year. The year in which your FreeAgent start date falls is the earliest tax year you can access in FreeAgent. Please note that FreeAgent's Self Assessment functionality for unincorporated landlords will only be available from the 2022/23 tax year onwards.

Alternatively, you can navigate to the tax year from the drop-down menu.

There are four tabs on the right-hand side of the screen for limited companies, five tabs for sole traders and six tabs for unincorporated landlords. The Self-employment page won’t be available in FreeAgent for limited company directors.

The colours and box numbers mirror those on your tax return so that it's easy to put the right number in the right box when you're completing in your tax return. For example, this what a self-employed individual would see on the Self-employment page if they're a sole trader.

The Tax Breakdown tab

The 'Your Tax Breakdown' tab is located at the bottom of the 'Your Tax Return' panel.

It gives you a detailed breakdown of how your income is added up and your tax worked out.

Completing the tax return

If you have other figures to put in, such as bank interest received, or other dividends received, you can enter these directly on the Main Return page.

Bank interest

Located under 'UK interest and dividends' on the Main Return page, you can enter your taxed bank interest in box 1 and/or untaxed interest in box 2. If you have more than one interest-bearing bank account, add the after-tax interest figures together and put the total in this box, but remember to omit interest received on tax-free accounts such as ISAs.

Dividends

Dividends are entered after tax credits. You'll find this figure on your dividend vouchers. If you're the shareholder or director of a limited company and the books are kept in this account on FreeAgent, don't put in any dividends here from that company as FreeAgent will automatically include those in the computation.

Pension contributions

If you've made any personal or stakeholder pension contributions, enter those in the 'Money paid into Pensions Schemes' section of the Main Return page. Make sure you enter the amount you actually paid, without adding back any tax relief. Please note that these boxes should be left blank if your pension was deducted directly from your salary.

Employment income

If you have employment income from outside your business, you can enter that in the Employment page. Please note that if you're a director or other employee of a limited company whose books are kept in this account on FreeAgent, don't enter your salary in here as FreeAgent will automatically include that in the computation. 

Enter the employer name and select 'Add Employment'.

This will produce boxes for you to complete for that employer. If you had more than one employment during this tax year, make sure to add one for each employer.

Self employment losses brought forward 

If you are self-employed and your business made a loss in the previous year, but you need to change the figure that FreeAgent has carried forward, you can change the amount by selecting the Self-employment tab. Please note that the Self-employment page won’t be available in FreeAgent for limited company directors.

Scroll to box 28 and override the amount. Only change this figure if you want to override FreeAgent's calculation, otherwise leave it as it is.

Unique Tax Reference (UTR)

In order to be able to file your Self Assessment tax return to HMRC using FreeAgent, you will need to enter your 10-digit unique tax reference number in your user profile. You'll find this on most letters and Self Assessment tax forms you receive from HMRC.

Once you've filed your Self Assessment return and paid your tax bill to HMRC, find out how to explain a Self Assessment payment to HMRC.