Self Assessment filing is here

Roan Lavery
CEO, Co-founder

Here’s a great start to the year. From today Sole Traders can now file their self assessment return to HMRC through FreeAgent!

Update (August 2014): FreeAgent now also supports Self Assessment filling for limited company directors! Take a look at the Knowledge Base to find out more.

Last month we released the massively updated self assessment section in FreeAgent, which included support for most of the sole trader self assessment return forms. Since then, between watching Die Hard and stuffing your face full of turkey, you’ve hopefully been filling in those forms.

Well from today if you're a Sole Trader, you can now take the final step and submit your self assessment return directly to HMRC in a couple of clicks.

How it works

If you’ve already completed the new self assessment forms, then filing should be easy. You’ll see a new Prepare to File Online button in the self assessment section, which takes you through to a final page that highlights any missing data and encourages you to double-check the data you’ve already entered.

Then if you're ready to go simply hit the File online with HMRC button and enter your Government Gateway ID and password. You’ll be taken back to the self assessment section and you’ll see the return as marked as Pending. If all goes well, this will switch to Filed if the return has been successfully received by HMRC. Ta da!

We’ve put together a short video so you can see how it all works. So easy, it almost seems like cheating I know.

Who can (and can't) file

While we’ve built support for the forms that are relevant to the majority of our users, not everyone will be able to use FreeAgent to file this year.

Our knowledge base article on filing self assessment returns through FreeAgent explains this in detail so take a look at that before deciding to file with FreeAgent.

If you can’t file this year, then don’t despair - we’ll be developing this more throughout the year so we’ve got comprehensive coverage for next year’s filing.

Locking

When self assessment returns are filed to HMRC, or simply Marked as Filed, then the accounting data for the relevant basis period will be locked down. This includes bank transactions, expenses, invoices, bills and other things too. See the knowledge base article for more details.

If you file a return and realise you’ve made a mistake then you can Unlock the Return , allowing you to make the amendment. Just remember to file the return again once you’ve finished, and bear in mind that the HMRC do place a limit on how many times you can refile.

Obviously we recommend checking your return thoroughly before submitting to avoid any mistakes, and if you have an accountant make sure they look this over.

And that's about the size of it. We hope you're as excited about filing taxes as we are. That's unlikely, but we know you'll agree it's a killer feature nonetheless. As ever, if you have any questions or comments just reply to this email and I'll get back to you.

Yippee ki-yay everybody,

Roan and the team at FreeAgent