Year-end and your tax return

Year-End Review is where you tie off a tax year: confirm your quarterly updates are in, confirm every income source, then calculate and submit your tax return to HMRC. This guide walks through the three sections of the task list and the things that can hold you up.

Supported tax years

Filing through this service starts at 2026/27. Use your existing Self Assessment filing service for 2025/26 or earlier. You can prepare the current supported year, but finalisation still requires the year to have ended. Earlier transactions, exports and relief reference figures remain available; never change their dates to fit a filing year.

What year-end is

Year-End Review (the Year-End Review item in the sidebar, at /tax/year-end) is where you finalise a tax year and submit your tax return to HMRC. Once you use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, this is how you submit your tax return, which covers everything HMRC holds for you for the year.

HMRC tracks two obligations across the year: your quarterly updates and your tax return. Your quarterly updates are cumulative estimates built automatically from the transactions you record, and your tax return is your chance to confirm the full-year figures and tell HMRC the year is complete.

The page is a task list in three sections: Quarterly updates, Your income sources, and Submit your tax return. A progress bar shows how many sections are complete, and a Continue button always takes you to the next thing to do. This guide is available on Free and MTD Lite.

Note: Year-End Review needs a connected HMRC account. If you have not connected yet, see Connect your HMRC account first.

Before you start

You will get the furthest if these are all true before you open the page:

1. Your HMRC account is connected (the page reads your obligations and figures directly from HMRC).
2. The tax year has ended. You cannot submit your tax return until 6 April following the end of the year. Until then the last section reads Cannot start yet.
3. Every required quarterly update is sent. See Send a quarterly update.
4. No unsupported income sources sit on your HMRC account for that year (for example foreign property). The app flags these as blockers: while one blocks, the app cannot submit your tax return, so submit it with HMRC's online services or software that supports these sources.

First, tell us what applies to you

On your first visit the list asks you to tell it what applies to you. Answer Yes or No for each optional income source (savings interest, dividends, employment and so on). A source you answer No to leaves the list; Yes keeps it. A source that already has figures recorded stays on the list: remove those figures on the source's own page first if it really does not apply. You cannot change these answers once the year is filed.

Section 1: Quarterly updates

This section shows how many of the year's quarterly updates are done ("X of Y submitted"). When your HMRC account is connected, the number required comes from HMRC's own obligations, so it reflects exactly what HMRC expects from you. It must be complete before you can submit your tax return.

If you use calendar quarters and this section counts the next tax year's first quarter (1 April to 30 June) as one of this year's, or asks you to send it before you can submit your tax return, contact support.

If an update is still outstanding, submit it first. Your due dates (from HMRC) are shown on the Deadlines page.

If a self-employment business is not linked to your HMRC account, nothing can be sent to HMRC for it, so this section names it and links to Settings (or to your quarterly updates first, while any are still owed). On the HMRC tab, select Retry Lookup to link it. If you do not trade through that business (for example you added it twice), delete it instead. If it still does not link, contact support.

Tip: Quarterly updates are cumulative, so a later update supersedes the earlier ones for the year. If you spotted a mistake in an earlier quarter, correcting your records and submitting the next update carries the correction forward automatically.

Section 2: Your income sources

This section has one row for each income source that applies to you, such as your UK property or self-employment figures and any additional income you have added. Each row shows a figure and a status, and each must be confirmed before you can submit your tax return.

• UK property needs its annual submission first. Open the row to reach UK Property Finalisation and send your annual adjustments and allowances; if none apply, confirm that on that page so HMRC receives an explicit nil annual position. See UK Property Finalisation.
• UK property and self-employment rows are then finalised with HMRC. Click Confirm with HMRC on the row, read the declaration, and confirm. This tells HMRC there are no further adjustments for that business (a BSAS finalisation). Property finalises as one source; self-employment finalises per business. If you chose to send your share of joint-property expenses with your year-end figures, those expenses have to reach HMRC in a final Q4 update before HMRC works out your UK property figures. When a step is about to send them for you, it says so first, with the amount. If you're not sure they have reached HMRC, contact support before you confirm your figures or submit your tax return.
• If a property or self-employment figure is wrong, open Year-end adjustments at /tax/adjustments from the row first and enter the real adjustments, which finalises the source the same way. See Correcting your yearly business totals.
• Other income rows open their own page, where you check or enter the figures and confirm them.
• Other income, reliefs and unsupported sources is confirmed with the Confirm button on the row. Confirm it if you have no income, gains or reliefs the app cannot submit, or once you have reported them to HMRC (through its online services, your accountant or other software). Report them before you submit your tax return: once it is submitted, adding them needs an amendment.
• The UK property figure is your property profit from the latest quarterly update sent from this app: income less allowable expenses, before any annual adjustments or allowances. Residential finance costs, such as mortgage interest, are not taken off it, because HMRC gives you a tax reduction for them instead. See Section 24 finance costs. If you chose to send your share of joint-property expenses with your year-end figures (once your property income reaches £90,000, that is all your expenses), the allowable ones are not taken off this figure until they are sent.

2025/26 calendar quarters: if a business used calendar quarters for 2025/26, its last update ended on 31 March 2026, so anything dated 1 to 5 April 2026 is not in an update yet. Add those figures in Year-end adjustments for 2025/26 before you confirm that business with HMRC. If you had nothing dated 1 to 5 April 2026, there is nothing to add.

Important: Residential finance-cost (mortgage interest) adjustments cannot be made here. They flow through your quarterly updates instead. See Section 24 finance costs.

Section 3: Submit your tax return

Once the year has ended and everything above is complete, open Check your answers and submit. The page lists every figure HMRC will use, then:

1. Click Calculate my tax to ask HMRC for the year's calculation, and review the figures it returns. Business income, Business expenses and Business profit are your UK property and self-employment figures. Total tax due covers all the income HMRC holds for you for the year, including any employment, pensions, dividends and interest, so it can be more than your business profit alone suggests. HMRC can take a little while to work out the calculation: the page keeps checking for about half a minute.
2. Resolve any HMRC messages that block submission, then recalculate.
3. Tick I have read and agree with the declaration above.
4. Click Submit your tax return.

On success you will see Tax return submitted with the date and HMRC's calculation reference. HMRC can take up to about an hour to mark the obligation as fulfilled, so the status may update shortly after.

Note: If you change anything after calculating (for example you send another quarterly update or finalise a source), the page says Your figures changed after this calculation and asks you to Recalculate before you can submit.

If you have income the app does not cover

Your tax return is only complete if it accounts for all of your income. The app does not yet report every income type (for example capital gains): report those to HMRC through its online services or your accountant before you submit your tax return, so HMRC's calculation includes them. Your tax return covers everything HMRC holds for you for the year, and adding something after it is submitted needs an amendment. A foreign property business, or an old furnished holiday lettings business, on your HMRC record is different: while it blocks your tax return (your Year-End Review says so), the app cannot submit your tax return, so submit it with HMRC's online services or software that supports it. For anything about your personal tax position or eligibility, check with HMRC or your accountant, or see the Making Tax Digital guide.

HMRC Assist: advisory feedback

Once a calculation exists on the Check your answers and submit page, click Run HMRC Assist check to ask HMRC for advisory feedback before you submit. HMRC Assist returns tailored prompts that flag possible errors or missed reliefs. Review the prompts, then submit when you are ready: it is advisory only and never stops you submitting your tax return. HMRC Assist is available on Free and MTD Lite once your HMRC account is connected.

Note: If HMRC Assist asks you to reconnect, your HMRC connection predates the extra permissions it needs. Reconnect your HMRC account from Settings and try again.

After you submit: correcting your tax return

You can correct a submitted tax return within HMRC's time limit using Amend Return (at /tax/year-end/amend). Follow the workflow to correct your figures and resubmit. For the exact window length, check with HMRC or your accountant.

Tip: Before finalising, the Check against HMRC page lets you compare your in-app records against what HMRC has on file and re-verify live, which is a good way to catch a discrepancy early.

If something goes wrong

• "HMRC did not confirm your tax return when it was sent, so it is not recorded as filed." HMRC had a temporary problem while your tax return was being sent, and it may or may not have arrived. Open Sent to HMRC (/tax/submissions) and check whether it is shown as sent before doing anything else. If it is not, check your HMRC online account to see whether HMRC received it, and submit again only if it did not.
• "...so we could not confirm whether HMRC received them, and we stopped before going any further." Before calculating your tax return, confirming UK property with HMRC, working out Year-end adjustments or recalculating an amendment, the app first sends any joint-property expenses you deferred to year end. HMRC's answer to that send never came back, so the step you pressed did not run. Wait a few minutes, then press the same button again: if the app has HMRC's confirmation that the expenses arrived, it carries on; otherwise it sends them again, which is safe because each update replaces the year-to-date figures. If it says "A UK property update you sent hasn't been confirmed by HMRC yet", wait a little longer; if that still shows after 15 minutes, raise a support ticket from Support in the sidebar. If you had already confirmed UK property with HMRC, sending these expenses cancels that confirmation: confirm UK property again on your Year-End Review (or enter your Year-end adjustments again) before you calculate your tax return or an amendment.
• "We could not start sending this to HMRC, so nothing was sent. Please submit it again." The app could not get your tax return ready to send, usually a brief connection problem on our side, so it stopped before contacting HMRC. Nothing reached HMRC, so you do not need to check your HMRC online account. Submit it again; if it keeps happening, contact support.
• "Your HMRC connection has changed since this page loaded, so nothing was sent. Reload the page and try again." Your HMRC connection was changed (for example reconnected in another tab) while you were submitting. Nothing was sent. Reload the page so it uses your current connection, then submit again.
• "This tax return could not be matched to your current HMRC connection, so we did not send it again." Your tax return was waiting to be sent again automatically, but your HMRC connection no longer matches the one it was first sent under, so it was not sent. Check your HMRC online account to see whether it arrived, and submit it again only if it did not.
• A tax return that did not go through, then you changed the National Insurance number on your HMRC connection. The failed attempt stays on record under your earlier number in Sent to HMRC. Submitting again sends your tax return under your current number as a new attempt. A tax return HMRC has accepted, under either number, still counts as sent for that year, so the app will not send another. If it was accepted under your current number, amend it to change it; if it was accepted under your earlier number, raise a support ticket from Support in the sidebar. While a tax return is still on its way to HMRC, under either number, the app will not send another until it is settled.
• Submitting is blocked or shows a blocker message. The app found something outstanding: the tax year has not ended yet, a required quarterly update is missing, an income source is not confirmed yet, or an unsupported income source is on your HMRC account. Resolve the listed item. While an unsupported source blocks, the app cannot submit your tax return: submit it with HMRC's online services or software that supports it. If your National Insurance number is missing, reconnect your HMRC account.
• "HMRC holds adjustments to these figures for this tax year. Confirming here with no changes would replace them, so nothing was sent." HMRC holds adjustment figures for that business and year, whether you, an agent or other software sent them, and confirming with no changes would remove them. Nothing was sent. Open Year-end adjustments, where they are shown: if the calculation there already has adjustments, start a new one with New Calculation, then send what you want HMRC to use. The form starts from the figures it has fields for; any figure marked The app cannot send this figure is replaced with none by a send from the app, and the confirm step names it first. If they are gone once the new calculation is ready, an update sent after them made them invalid at HMRC: enter them again if you still want HMRC to use them. Select the calculation they were on to see them under Adjustments sent on this calculation. See Correcting your yearly business totals.
• "HMRC holds adjustments to these figures for this tax year. Your joint-property expenses held back for year end must be sent first, and sending them cancels those adjustments, so nothing was sent." Confirming UK property sends your share of joint-property expenses held back for year end first, and HMRC treats any adjustments it holds as invalid once that update arrives. HMRC holds adjustment figures for your property business, so nothing was sent. Open Year-end adjustments and note the adjustments it shows. New Calculation there sends the held-back expenses and starts a new calculation; enter the adjustments again on it and send them.
• "We could not read the adjustments HMRC holds for these figures, so nothing was sent." Confirm with HMRC tried to read the adjustments HMRC holds before sending, and HMRC could not be read just then. Nothing was sent. Try again in a few minutes.
• Year-end still says HMRC needs final confirmation for a source after you entered the annual figures. Entering the annual figures alone does not finalise the source. Click Confirm with HMRC on that row in Your income sources, or use Year-end adjustments.
• It asks you to recalculate before submitting. A newer input landed after the displayed calculation was produced, so it is stale. Click Recalculate, review, then submit.
• "HMRC has not returned your calculation yet." HMRC had not finished the calculation after about half a minute. Wait a minute, then select Calculate my tax again. If it keeps happening, contact support.
• "HMRC has received newer figures since this calculation, so nothing was submitted." HMRC holds figures that arrived after the calculation was made (or your income sources or residency at HMRC changed since), so it will not accept a tax return on that calculation. Nothing was submitted. Select Calculate my tax again, review the new calculation, then submit.
• "We could not load your ... from HMRC, so we cannot check this part of your tax return." HMRC could not be read for that income source just then, so the app cannot tell whether HMRC holds figures for it. Until it loads, your answer for it in Which of these apply to you? cannot be changed. Refresh the page; if it keeps happening, reconnect HMRC in Settings, then contact support if it still fails.
• Your tax return looks incomplete. Check whether you have income the app does not cover (see above). Report it to HMRC before you submit; if your tax return is already submitted, it needs an amendment.
• The Technical HMRC details panel says HMRC could not return the property figures it holds. A known HMRC issue (September 2026) stops HMRC returning a property update that contained income but no expenses. Your update was received and this panel does not block the year-end flow, so you can carry on. If the panel says No submissions recorded with HMRC for this tax year yet instead, HMRC genuinely holds no quarterly update for that year.
• The Tax Calculations card in the Technical HMRC details panel. It lists the calculations HMRC has worked out for the tax year, each with its date, type and HMRC's figure. A calculation with no amount is one HMRC lists without a figure, and the figure includes Capital Gains Tax when the calculation has any, so it can differ from a total elsewhere in the app. Calculations that failed at HMRC are not listed. If HMRC could not be read, the card says so, with what to do where it can (a lapsed connection asks you to reconnect): that means the read failed, not that there are no calculations. The card reads when the page loads, so reload the page to see a calculation made since.

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