Automate quarterly MTD for Income Tax submissions
This article explains how to enable quarterly Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax submissions to be sent to HMRC automatically.
The quarterly updates can only be submitted after the end of the quarter and have the following deadlines:
- Quarter one - 7th August
- Quarter two - 7th November
- Quarter three - 7th February
- Quarter four - 7th May
You can send a quarterly update to HMRC manually each time, or follow the steps below to enable the submissions to be sent to HMRC automatically each quarter.
Quarterly updates need to be submitted for each separate self-employment and property income source. Therefore, 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.
Please note:
- It’s only possible to automate quarterly update submissions. End-of-year updates and final declarations need to sent to HMRC manually each year.
- You’ll need full (level 8) access to your FreeAgent account in order to automate your quarterly update submissions to HMRC once you’ve prepared your accounts in FreeAgent.
- You'll need to have signed up for MTD for Income Tax with HMRC and connected FreeAgent to HMRC before following the steps below.
- If you use FreeAgent with your accountant, only they can enable automatic submissions using their MTD for Income Tax connection. They may also restrict your ability to access and submit your quarterly updates. Please speak to your accountant if you have any questions or want to be able to access these. FreeAgent is unable to change these permissions for you.
- If you’re a FreeAgent Practice Partner, you can enable these automated settings from your dashboard for your clients once you’ve set up your practice and clients for MTD for Income Tax.
Enable automated quarterly update submissions
Select ‘Settings’ from the drop-down menu under your business name and select ‘Users’ within the 'My Company' section.
Select your name from the list.
Select ‘Yes’ to ‘Send automated updates to HMRC’.
Choose how many days after the end of the period you’d like the quarterly updates to be sent to HMRC.
Select ‘Save Changes’ at the bottom of the screen to complete the process.
Your quarterly updates will now be sent to HMRC automatically on the specified number of days after the end of each period.