Change from agent submission to doing it myself

littlemoney

I was getting very stressed having been asked to self assessment having only 3 months to get it submitted.

A friend recommended his tax account so I got her to do mine. Still waiting for the bill but it was short term peace of mind.

Having got advice from all you good folks here and seeing what she produced I may try to do the 2025/26 return myself as I understand the self assessment process will tell me how much I owe and when to pay it. The agent provided me with this information for 2024/25.

What do I need to do on my record so I can enter the figures myself as when I look at my record there is no way of doing this.

I'm assuming it was because it was a tax agent submission and not a self assessment. Just need to know the right way to go forward.

The agent has offered to do 2025/26 but despite my asking still hasn't told me how much she will be charging for the work already undertaken so I can see the saving if I do it myself

sherlock228

what are you?
PAYE? Self employed? Landlord? Retired?
gross income amount from each source ? (MTD implications)

presumably you already have your Government Gateway sign-in details, your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR), and records of your income and expenses?

littlemoney

I'm retired. Income from state and occupational pension plus savings interest and dividends. I have a Gateway sign in and Unique Taxpayer Reference.

DRS1

When you go to your Personal Tax Account do you have a page showing a list under the heading Taxes and Benefits.

In that list is there a heading called Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and Self Assessment (or maybe just Self Assessment).

What do you get when you click on that? A page headed Income Tax with a subheading Self Assessment tax returns and a link to click saying Access your self assessment tax returns?

If you click on that do you get a page with a green box saying Complete Self Assessment return 2025 to 2026?

eskbanker

What do I need to do on my record so I can enter the figures myself as when I look at my record there is no way of doing this.

I'm assuming it was because it was a tax agent submission and not a self assessment. Just need to know the right way to go forward.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/change-or-remove-your-tax-agents-authorisation

sherlock228

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82090866#Comment_82090866

then you do not need an accountant to do your tax return, you can easily DIY.
MTD is irrelevant to you as someone with only those sources of income

the SA online submission guidance is good enough to show you what figures to put where and yes, it will tell you what you owe if you use the online tax return (not the paper one)

note for your state pension there is a slight faff in that you have to report what you were entitled to receive as it is a weekly total and thus changes early in the tax year. The note for Box 8 explains what to do to calculate the figure:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69c14ce2d588c92c483e4ba6/SA150-Notes-2026.pdf

You can complete your return online. You can take your time doing it and can edit as you go if necessary as it saves each time and only formally locks it and submits it when you finally tell it to do so

File your Self Assessment tax return online - GOV.UK

if you are uncomfortable doing things on line then you can still send off your tax return in paper format but the deadline for doing so is 31 October. You can print off the relevant sections by selecting them from here:

Self Assessment tax return forms - GOV.UK

UKTaxHelper

One thing that might be why you can't see it: if the agent has always filed for you, Self Assessment may never have been added to your own Gateway account, and HMRC posts an activation code out for that which takes a week or so to arrive. Worth doing that bit now rather than leaving it.

littlemoney

Thank you for all your helpful comments.

I logged into HMRC and found I had started to fill in my personal details for self assessment for 2024/25 and then got to stressed to understand it all, especially as I only had 3 months to get it sorted so used a tax accountant service.

It appears I am good to go for doing 2025/26 via self assessment and will do so as the cost was much more than I was expecting.

Next step is to follow up on ending from agent submission