Complete the Employment page for MTD for Income Tax

This article provides a simple guide on how to complete the Employment page to send to HMRC as part of an end-of-year update for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax using FreeAgent.

You'll need to complete the Employment page if you have a job in addition to your sole trade or your rental income, to send details of any employment or workplace pension income, employment expenses, income from tips, share options, shares awarded or received, or benefits in kind, to HMRC.

Any information entered will be included in your next submission and used by HMRC to calculate your tax estimate.

You can enter the information at the end of the tax year to include it in your end-of-year update. This information must be submitted to HMRC before making your final declaration.

If your employer or pension provider would have sent your information to HMRC as part of their regular reporting, you can request data from HMRC to bring existing employment data from HMRC into FreeAgent.

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 guide on how to efficiently manage multiple income streams.
     
  • You’ll need full (level 8) access to complete the Employment page.
     
  • If you use FreeAgent with your accountant, they may restrict your ability to access the MTD for Income Tax area in your account. Please speak to your accountant if you have any questions or want to be able to access this but can't see it. FreeAgent is unable to change these permissions for you.
     
  • We are not authorised by HMRC to provide accounting or tax advice. Therefore, FreeAgent’s support team cannot help you with employment income and expenses. If you’re unsure which employment data you need to report, please speak to your accountant or to 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 for MTD for Income Tax and signed up your clients.

The Employment page

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

'Taxes' drop-down menu with 'Income Tax' highlighted.

Select the relevant tax year from the list.

Tax year highlighted in table under 'Tax year' header on Income Tax Summary page.

Select the ‘Employment’ tab.

'Employment' tab highlighted on MTD for Income Tax submission page.

The Employment page contains the following sections:

  • Employments and Occupational Pensions’ - to declare any employment or workplace pension income.
  • Employment Expenses’ - to manage your employment expenses for this tax year.
  • Non-PAYE Employment Income’ - to declare any income that you received from tips.
  • Other Employment Income’ - to declare any share options, shares awarded or received, deductions for disability or foreign service, or lump sums.
  • Payrolled Benefits in Kind’ - to declare any benefits in kind included in your PAYE total pay that could cause you to overpay your student loan.

Employment data can either be provided by HMRC or manually entered.

Employment data provided by HMRC

If your employer has submitted payroll to HMRC, any relevant employment data from HMRC will be added automatically to the relevant sections when you request data from HMRC or send an update.

Employments and Occupational Pensions section with Financial Details automatically added by HMRC.

You can edit the details provided by HMRC by selecting ‘Edit’ next to the details you want to change. Please note that’s not possible to delete information provided by HMRC.

'Edit' button highlighted by Financial Details section within Employments and Occupational Pensions area.

You can choose to ignore employment data provided by HMRC in FreeAgent by selecting ‘Mark as Ignored’.

'Mark as Ignored' button highlighted next to listed employment data.

You can then include this data in FreeAgent again by selecting ‘Mark as Unignored’.

'Mark as Unignored' button highlighted next to listed employment data.

Adding employment or workplace pension income data manually

You can manually enter employment or workplace pension income data that you want to send to HMRC as part of an end-of-year update.

To add employment or occupational pension income data manually, select ‘Yes’ in the relevant section and select the ‘Add X’ button.

'Add an employment or occupational pension' button highlighted under the Employments and Occupational Pensions section.

Enter the relevant details and select ‘Add Employment’. Please note this will still show as 'Add Employment' for occupational pension income.

'New Employment or Occupational Pension' window with button to 'Add Employment'.

You can edit manually added employment or occupational pension income data by selecting ‘Edit’ to the right of the information you want to change, and delete it by selecting the cross.

'Edit' and red cross ('X') buttons highlighted next to listed Financial Details.

Did you find this article useful?