How FreeAgent filed the first tax submission from space

On a grassy hill near Sheffield, preparations are underway for a unique space adventure. Two men fill a huge white balloon with hydrogen, someone else plugs cables into a satellite internet system, a robot arm flexes. This is the launch site for FreeAgent’s giant leap into the stratosphere. We’re about to file the first tax submission from space… and this is the story of how - and why - it happened.

The daring mission comes ahead of a revolutionary modernisation of UK taxation: Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax. A year from now, MTD for Income Tax will apply to all self-employed individuals and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000. By April 2028, it will apply to all those with an income over £20,000. 

The launch balloon is filled with hydrogen gas, ready to make tax history.

Yet uncertainty is high among small business owners - according to our latest Small Business Monitor Survey, a fifth either don’t understand anything about MTD or have never heard about it at all. That’s why FreeAgent has gone far above the birds and planes to boost confidence for our customers. 

“MTD for IT is the biggest change for UK tax in more than a generation, but we know that many small businesses are still apprehensive about the legislation and how it will impact them,” explains FreeAgent CEO Roan Lavery. 

“That’s why we wanted to show how straightforward and manageable it is for small businesses and accountants to work together to submit tax updates to HMRC through FreeAgent - even from space!”

An intrepid business owner and an adventurous accountant

Julie Falchevska, Director at our space accounting partner Maslins.

Naturally, to file the first tax submission from space, we first needed to find an intrepid small business owner and an adventurous accountancy firm who were willing to go to infinity and beyond with us. We found exactly the right accountants in Maslins - a FreeAgent Partner based in Royal Tunbridge Wells. Even if they were a tad sceptical to start with.

“When I first heard about FreeAgent sending a tax submission from space, I thought it was mad,” admits Julie Falchevska, Director at Maslins [pictured above]. “But we were interested and curious at the same time. We always trust in FreeAgent to do the best job.”

Julie put us in touch with one of their clients - singer, violinist and music teacher Jennifer Maslin [pictured below]- who was thrilled at the opportunity to make tax submission history by sending an MTD for Income Tax update from a very unusual location. “​​I was super excited when FreeAgent asked me to take part in the project,” she says. “I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would be submitting tax from space. I normally do it from my sofa!”

Jennifer Maslin: singer, violinist, music teacher and pioneer of orbital accounting.

Extra-terrestrial technology

With our accountant and small business in place, we worked with aerospace experts Sent Into Space to engineer all the complex technical details. 

With FreeAgent, tax submissions are simple for small businesses. We’ve been allowing our customers to file directly to HMRC since 2014. Nine out of 10 businesses feel more confident in their finances with FreeAgent (according to our Small Business Monitor Survey, 2024). It’s safe to say, when it comes to small businesses’ accounts - we got this.

But that’s all been Earth-bound. Space is a whole new challenge. 

“It’s a creative idea that’s fun but also difficult,” says Chris Rose, Head of Projects & Business Development at Sent Into Space. “A lot of technology needed to go into this from the outset, in order to execute a discussion-worthy feat.”

Scaling the technical challenges of getting an office set-up into space.

FreeAgent is renowned for making admin feel effortless. But sending a tablet computer and router to a height of 26km aboard a high-altitude balloon… before accessing a business’s live accounting data in FreeAgent’s software… and then getting a robot arm to hit submit as the tax update sends to HMRC, via a secure satellite connection? Well, that is as hard as it sounds.

Chris and his team had to master complex robotics, harsh conditions (temperatures are -46.5°C up there), a whole new way to connect to the internet far beyond the reach of Wi-Fi and the unpredictable UK weather - all in a context where every gramme counts. 

“We’re trying to get the most breathtaking visual altitude we can above the Earth. So any weight saving we can achieve is great,” says Chris. “In this case, there’s a lot of control systems going on and a lot of regulation systems that come with that: thermal regulation, pressure regulation, so we know this is going to be a heavy craft from the outset. With that in mind, we have to be very careful about how we design things.”

Preparing for MTD for Income Tax

The finished rig, before meeting its date with MTD destiny.

As the craft was being built at Sent Into Space’s workshop in Sheffield, up the M1 in FreeAgent’s Edinburgh HQ, we had a pretty big head start on our preparations. Ever since Making Tax Digital was first announced in 2015, our engineers and expert accountants have been readying our systems. 

And that hard work has paid off. HMRC has included us in its list of MTD for IT-compatible software - meaning that everyone using FreeAgent will already be complying with the new requirement to keep digital records - and we’re part of the ‘private beta’ test ahead of the rules coming into force. 

“Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will be a big change for small business owners,” says Jon Martingale, FreeAgent’s Head of Product Management. “Most businesses will move from annual submissions to quarterly submissions. Making this an efficient and effective process is going to be very important.

“At FreeAgent we have been part of the HMRC pilot since it first started,” he continues. “That has given us time and opportunity to not only develop the technical functionality, but to build the workflows to make it an easy, seamless and efficient process.”

We have (environmentally friendly) lift-off!

Final checks are completed on the hydrogen-filled balloon.

Back down in Sheffield, Sent Into Space has created a craft that acts as computer and router to communicate, via a satellite array, to web servers at HMRC. It’s basically a home office in space. Though they’ve launched multiple hydrogen-powered spaceships in the past, our mission will be the first time they’ve sent a router up - so FreeAgent can submit directly to HMRC and truly file our tax submission from space.

For both FreeAgent and Sent Into Space, environmental impact is incredibly important, so the craft also has to meet stringent green credentials. It is lifted by renewable hydrogen, which can be produced from water in a simple reaction with oxygen as the only by-product. Meanwhile the balloon itself is made from undyed natural latex, which is biodegradable and breaks down at the same rate as an oak leaf. When it bursts, 95% of material is recovered with the spacecraft. Any small parts that break off are able to pass harmlessly through any scavenger’s digestive tract. 

Waste minimised and recycled products used wherever possible, the craft is perfected and MTD-ready. The only thing left is to actually go into space. 

It’s a chilly day when the team arrives at the launch site - but clear and still enough to safely launch. The balloon is filled, the craft attached… and we have lift-off! 

Safe aboard, our accounting software takes its world-first trip up and up and up - all the way through the troposphere and into the stratosphere. Once there, the robot arm deploys, and Jennifer’s MTD for Income Tax submission zaps down to HMRC. A confirmation message shows. We have success!

The craft floats above the Yorkshire countryside, on its way up to 26km above Earth.

“It’s really exciting to see the launch, and I am thrilled to be part of the whole project and see it come to fruition,” says Jennifer. “As a singer, I love that a recording of ‘Fly Me to the Moon’, sung by Frank Sinatra, went up with Apollo 10 and 11. I might not have sung in space… but sending my tax submission might be the next best thing.”

To find out more about MTD for Income Tax and how you can get ready, check out FreeAgent’s Making Tax Digital information hubs for small businesses and accountants.