Complete your Self Assessment tax return

This article explains how to complete your Self Assessment tax return in FreeAgent. It also explains why your figures in FreeAgent might be different to your figures in your HMRC account.

Navigate 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 ‘History’ drop-down menu.

Complete the necessary pages

Use the tabs at the top of the return to navigate between the pages of your tax return. Incomplete sections are marked with an orange exclamation mark. 

There are six tabs for all account types: Main Return, Employment, Self-Employment, UK Property, Tax Adjustments and Your Tax Breakdown.

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 your tax return. To be able to file through FreeAgent, you must select ‘No’ for any sections of the tax return that you don't need to fill in.

Main Return page

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

If you have a limited company FreeAgent account type, the first field in box 4 will be completed for you, with the amount of dividends you received from the limited company of which you’re a director. If you received dividends from shares you hold in other UK companies, enter these in the second field of box 4. FreeAgent will add the figures in the two fields together and display the total.

If you’re a sole trader, the total amount recorded as ‘Interest Received’ in your FreeAgent account will be displayed on your return but you’ll need to manually enter the amount into the relevant box(es) on the return. FreeAgent can't populate box 1 or box 2 for you since we have no way of knowing whether your bank took tax off before paying you the interest.

You’ll also need to manually enter any dividends you received from companies if applicable.

Employment page

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 and you're running the company's payroll through this FreeAgent account, don't enter your salary in here as FreeAgent will automatically include that in the calculation.

Find out more about the Employment page for limited company directors.

If you’re a sole trader or unincorporated landlord who also has a full-time job, or one or more part-time jobs, as well as being self-employed or renting out properties, or your business is a limited company but you're not running its payroll through your FreeAgent account, you’ll need to fill out the Employment page manually. If you have more than one job, you'll need to fill out a separate Employment page on your tax return for each of your jobs. 

Find out more about the Employment page for sole traders and the Employment page for unincorporated landlords.

To manually add an employment, enter your employer’s name in the box and select ‘Add Employment’.

Self-employment pages

There are two different versions of the Self-employment pages: the short version and the long version. You can find out more in HMRC's guidance on the short and long versions of these pages.

If you’re a sole trader, FreeAgent fills in the boxes for you by taking data from the invoices, bills, bank transactions, out-of-pocket expenses and journals that you've entered in FreeAgent. Find out more about the short version and long version of the Self-employment page for sole traders.

If you’re a limited company director, you’ll only need to complete the Self-employment page if you have a self-employed business in addition to the income you receive from the company of which you’re a director. Please note that the company's income and costs shouldn't be included here because those will be reported to HMRC on the company's tax return; this is your own personal tax return we're completing.

If you’re an unincorporated landlord, you’ll only need to complete the Self-employment page if you have a self-employed business in addition to the properties that you rent out.

UK Property page

If you have income from a UK property, you can enter this on the UK Property page.

If you’re an unincorporated landlord, the UK property page will be filled in by in FreeAgent based on the rental income and costs recorded in your FreeAgent account.

If you’re a sole trader or limited company director, you’ll need to fill this page in manually.

Tax Adjustments page

If you need to adjust your income tax or class 4 National Insurance figure, for example if you've paid too much or not enough tax through PAYE, you can do that on the Tax Adjustments page.

It’s also the page where FreeAgent will work out your payments on account for the next tax year and display this figure in box 11.

Your Tax Breakdown page

You can see how FreeAgent has worked out your income tax, student loan repayments, class 2 National Insurance and class 4 National Insurance on the Your Tax Breakdown page of your Self Assessment return.

File your tax return

Once you’ve completed all the necessary pages of your Self Assessment tax return, you can file it to HMRC.

Additional resources

You might find the following resources useful for completing your tax return in FreeAgent:

• Self Assessment hub which contains information about key deadlines, who needs to file and how to complete your tax return.
   
• Expenses A-Z guide which can help identify whether you can or cannot claim tax relief on certain business costs.

Why are your figures different in your HMRC account?

FreeAgent calculates Self Assessment figures based on what has been entered into your FreeAgent account. If you’re a sole trader this will include, for example, your invoices, costs and assets, and if you’re the director of a limited company and running payroll through FreeAgent it will take your salary and dividends. If you’re an unincorporated landlord, it will include the property income and costs recorded in your account.

Based on these figures and on anything else entered into the Self Assessment pages, FreeAgent will use calculations supplied by HMRC to software developers to work out the tax and NI due.

If HMRC later adjust these figures, perhaps because of additional information they have that was not included in your FreeAgent account e.g. an underpayment of tax from a prior year, FreeAgent will keep the original amounts and will not account for these adjustments that have been made by HMRC themselves, or payments you have made.

If you’re not sure why your Self Assessment figure in FreeAgent is different to the one you can see in your HMRC tax account dashboard, please speak to your accountant or to HMRC's Self Assessment Helpline to understand what adjustments were made to your account and why.

Once you have this information, it may be possible to reflect this in FreeAgent, depending on the adjustments made.