Request data from HMRC for MTD for Income Tax
This article explains how to bring existing data from HMRC into FreeAgent for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax.
If you’re moving to FreeAgent during the tax year and you've already started sending submissions to HMRC for payroll or for MTD for Income Tax outside of FreeAgent, you can bring this information into FreeAgent without having to make another MTD for Income Tax submission to HMRC.
For example, details of any income, employment, benefits, CIS deductions or a list of businesses to add brought-forward losses for, that aren't currently in your FreeAgent account can be requested from HMRC. This allows you to have all the necessary information in your FreeAgent account before making submissions to HMRC.
Please note:
- FreeAgent’s MTD for Income Tax functionality is available for sole traders and unincorporated landlords. Read our fast-track guides for sole traders and landlords for MTD for Income Tax.
- If you have more than one income stream, for instance if you're self-employed and also a landlord, you'll need a sole trader and an unincorporated landlord account in FreeAgent. You can find out what counts as multiple income streams, as well as tips for managing more than one income stream, in our how to efficiently manage multiple income streams guide.
- Requesting data from HMRC does not reset your FreeAgent data. We merge any changes you’ve already made with the data we receive from HMRC.
- Data will only be requested from the sections you’ve chosen to use in FreeAgent and requesting data from HMRC won’t send any information to HMRC from FreeAgent or trigger a new tax calculation.
- You’ll need full (level 8) access to retrieve data from HMRC.
If you have a FreeAgent Practice Dashboard, you’ll need to switch to your client’s account to follow the steps below once you’ve set up your practice and clients for MTD for Income Tax.
1. Choose which sections you want to use in FreeAgent
Navigate to the ‘Taxes’ tab at the top of the screen and select ‘Income Tax’ from the drop-down menu.
Select the relevant tax year from the list.
Select ‘Yes’ for the sections that you want to use in FreeAgent. Details from sections that are set to ‘No’ won’t be requested from HMRC.
If you only intend to send self-employment or property information to HMRC and are not intending to use FreeAgent for reporting other information to HMRC, you can switch off Individual information reporting to HMRC.
2. Request data from HMRC
Once you’ve chosen what sections you want to use in FreeAgent, select ‘More’ at the top-right of any page in the MTD for Income Tax area and select ‘Request data from HMRC’ from the drop-down menu.
You’ll see confirmation of which information will be requested from HMRC based on the sections that you’ve chosen to use in FreeAgent.
Select ‘Request Data’.
Requesting data from HMRC does not reset your FreeAgent data. We merge any changes you’ve already made with the data we receive from HMRC.