Self Assessment Filing is coming soon

Roan Lavery

CEO, Co-founder

Hands up who hates doing their Self Assessment return? Yep, thought as much. Well today’s news may be of interest to you.

We’ve just released a huge update to the Self Assessment section in FreeAgent for Sole Traders. In the past we provided accurate calculations of Self Assessment liability based on the fairly limited set of data already in FreeAgent. Today’s update introduces support for more of the HMRC Self Assessment forms, and lays the groundwork for something more exciting.

There’s too much to list, but this includes full support for the Self Assessment Main Return, Self Employment and Employment (including adding multiple Other Employments) forms.

Them's some big old forms

I know right! So why go to all the hassle of completing them in FreeAgent? It’s a great question, to which there are two very good answers:

1. Adding all this other data allows you to create a more accurate picture of your Self Assessment return and ultimate tax liability
2. By early January, Sole Traders will be able to file their Self Assessment returns directly through FreeAgent

I’ll repeat that second one: if you're a Sole Trader, by early January you'll be able to file your Self Assessment return through FreeAgent!

So there’s that.

Obviously this is a huge deal. Self Assessment filing is still one of the most stressful times for sole traders, and being able to seamlessly file from within FreeAgent will significantly simplify the process. For the first time, we might actually fulfil the promise that tax doesn’t have to be taxing.

There are caveats: if you have income from Property, Capital Gains, Foreign Income or Trusts you won’t be able to file through FreeAgent this year unfortunately.

If you want to know more head on over to the Knowledge Base where we’ve added a new Self Assessment section walking you through the pages and giving a detailed guide on how to fill them in.

Any questions?

This is one of the biggest releases we’ve ever done, so we know there will be lots of questions. If you want to ask anything, just email me at roan@freeagent.com and I’ll make sure to get back to you.

We’ll be releasing more information about how filing will work soon, so stay tuned for more details.

Farewell sweet API 1.0 and (less sweet) IE7

In April of last year we released API 2.0. Since then, we’ve continued to support our legacy API 1.0, but we’ll soon be switching off life support for the old girl. It’s been a hard decision, but it's what she would have wanted.

Most applications that use our API have long since transitioned over to API 2.0 so this should have no impact on any important integrations, but if you are using our API 1.0 then you’ve got until the end of the year to move over. More details can be found on our Engineering Blog.

We’re also dropping support for Internet Explorer 7 in FreeAgent. Our analytics show there is a vanishingly small percentage of users using this browser to access the app, but if you’re one of them then you’ll need to upgrade your browser to a more modern one. You’ll thank us for it, promise.

Until next time,
Roan and the team at FreeAgent