Switch your client to MTD for Income Tax filing in FreeAgent
Once you've signed a client up to Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax with HMRC, follow the steps below to switch them to MTD for Income Tax filing in FreeAgent.
Please note:
- FreeAgent’s MTD for Income Tax functionality is available for sole trader and unincorporated landlord clients. Read our fast-track guides for sole traders and landlords for MTD for Income Tax.
- If your client is a sole trader who also rents out properties, or a landlord who also has a self-employed business, they'll need separate sole trader and unincorporated landlord accounts in FreeAgent. Read more about how to use FreeAgent for MTD for Income Tax if you’re a sole trader with multiple businesses or rental income.
- If you’re moving a client to FreeAgent during the tax year, you can add them to your dashboard and then enter or import their opening balances before making the required submissions to HMRC.
- If you don’t want your client to see the MTD submission screen or tax position of other users on the account, you could set their user permissions to level 6 or below. Read about how to edit a client’s details.
1. Switch client to MTD for Income Tax filing
Navigate to the ‘Clients’ tab from your Practice Dashboard and select the name of the client you’d like to switch to MTD for Income Tax filing.
For a sole trader or the account owner of a landlord account
Select ‘Switch Business account owner to MTD Income Tax filing’ to complete the process. This will allow you to submit MTD for Income Tax returns from FreeAgent on that client’s behalf.
If you don’t see this button, it could be due to:
- The client not being set up as a sole trader or landlord
- The account owner is set up an employee
- The account owner’s National Insurance (NI) number has not been entered in their user profile
- You not having connected your HMRC agent services account to FreeAgent
For other property owners on a landlord account
From the client's profile, select the ‘Users’ tab.
To the right of the name of the user you want to activate MTD for Income Tax for, click the button to activate them.
If you don’t see this button, it could be due to:
- The client not being set up as a sole trader or landlord
- The account owner’s National Insurance (NI) number has not been entered in their user profile
- You not having connected your HMRC agent services account to FreeAgent
2. Check your client’s details
Next, you’ll need to switch to your client’s FreeAgent account and check their FreeAgent start date, National Insurance number and MTD for Income Tax start year.
FreeAgent start date
Make sure that your clients’ FreeAgent start date is correct. This is the date from which you started keeping their books in FreeAgent.
National Insurance number
Check that their National Insurance number has been entered correctly and matches your records and HMRC’s.
MTD for Income Tax start year
FreeAgent will set the client’s MTD for Income Tax start year to be the start of the current tax year or to your client’s FreeAgent start date if later. FreeAgent uses this date to determine when to start aggregating information to send to HMRC as part of your client’s quarterly updates. Any transactions dated before this date will not be included in your client’s quarterly submissions.
If your client’s accounting year-end date is dated on 5th April or between 31st March and 4th April, you can set a later FreeAgent start date than 6th April but you must ensure that your client’s opening balances are entered to include the total income and expenditure dated from the start of the tax year up to your client's FreeAgent start date. This will ensure that the year-to-date quarterly updates that FreeAgent sends to HMRC are accurate.
If you've registered more than one income stream for MTD for Income Tax for your client, you will be asked which stream you want to link to your client's FreeAgent account when you attempt to make your first quarterly submission, as FreeAgent will identify that there are multiple MTD income streams linked to your client's account. Make sure you choose the correct income stream, as this cannot be changed once you have submitted a quarterly update for that client.
If you're not able to identify which sole trader business each business ID relates to, you can ask your client to update their business trading names with HMRC to something you and they can easily recognise.
Repeat these steps for all your clients who are registered for MTD for Income Tax with HMRC.
What happens next?
Once the client has been successfully switched to MTD for Income Tax filing, you’ll see a message confirming this at the top of the client’s profile on your Practice Dashboard.
Please note that FreeAgent can only show a tax year once it has started. If you switch to the client's account and go to 'Taxes' and then 'Income Tax', but don't see your client's MTD for Income Tax returns, it may be because the tax year in question has not started yet. For example, if you sign your client up to MTD for Income Tax for the 2026/27 tax year, you won't see an MTD for Income Tax return in their FreeAgent account until 6th April 26.