Start a new payroll tax year

This article explains how to start a new payroll tax year and transfer employee profiles in FreeAgent.

Please note:

  • FreeAgent's payroll functionality won't be available if you have an unincorporated landlord or non-UK account type, or if you're preparing your accounts using cash basis accounting.
     
  • Once you’ve filed (or marked as filed) the month 12 payroll for the existing tax year, you don't need to do anything else. FreeAgent lets HMRC know that you are finished with the previous year, then from 1st Apr you’ll be able to set up a new payroll tax year by following the steps below.

1. Navigate to Payroll

Navigate to the ‘My Money’ tab at the top of the screen and select ‘Payroll’ from the drop-down menu.

Payroll highlighted in drop-down menu under My Money on the overview page.

2. Check for any HMRC notices

Before starting the new payroll year, it’s a good idea to check if there are any relevant HMRC notices. To do this, select ‘Check HMRC notices’.

'Check HMRC notices' button at the top of the payroll page.

This will take you to the HMRC notices area of FreeAgent. To check for new notices, select ‘Request HMRC Notices’.

'Request HMRC Notices' button highlighted at top of HMRC notices page.

3. Start the new payroll year

Once you've checked for any HMRC notices, select ‘Start [X] Payroll year’. FreeAgent will then use information from last year to create this year’s payroll profiles.

'Start [x] payroll year' button highlighted on payroll page.

If you need to edit a profile, you can do that before selecting ‘Start new Payroll year’ but you can also edit profiles after the transfer is complete. You can edit an employee’s profile by selecting ‘Edit’ at the far right-hand side of their name.

'Edit' button highlighted next to employee's listing on payroll page.

Here you can edit the employee’s NI category letter, tax code and any other relevant information. 

Tax and NI area of employee details.

To complete the changes to a payroll profile before starting a new payroll year, select 'Create Payroll Profile' at the bottom of the page.

To start the new tax year, select ‘Start new Payroll year’ in the top-right corner.

'Start new Payroll year' button highlighted at top of payroll page.

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