The Ftax team are working on a low-cost MTD for IT solution to be launched April 2026. Contact us for further information.
The Ftax team are working on a low-cost MTD for IT solution to be launched April 2026. Contact us for further information.
After downloading the latest Ftax form, saving it to a known location, and opening in a recent version of Adobe Reader, the following must be carried out before completing the Ftax return:
1. Comply with the Special Notice
This should be automatically displayed when an Ftax form is first opened in Adobe Reader. It may be redisplayed at anytime by clicking the ‘?’ in a red ball on the opening page of the Ftax form and selecting the top option. This reads:
2. Login to your Ftax Account from the form
The Ftax Account Login popup should be automatically displayed when the ‘Continue’ button is clicked (twice) on the Special Notice. This can also be displayed at anytime by clicking the ‘?’ in a red ball and selecting the bottom option.
Make sure the ‘Do NOT login to my Ftax Account’ box is unticked, and enter your Ftax Account Username and Password before clicking ‘Login’. You are also advised to first tick the ‘Save login details on computer’ box so that you remain automatically logged in.
Note: – Do not confuse your Ftax Account Username and Password with the Gateway User ID and Password.
On clicking ‘Login’ a popup should confirm ‘Login Success’. The number of remaining credits should also be displayed towards the bottom left of the Ftax form. If the popup displays the following error messages then please do as advised:
‘Communication Problem’ – This may be due to you not having Internet access, but is more likely to be due to the ‘Enhanced Security’ box still being ticked in the Adobe Reader Preferences. Please return to step 1. and correct.
‘SOAPservice not recognised …’ – This may also be due to lack of Internet access, or the Special Notice not being fully complied with as described above. But it may also be due your computer not trusting www.ftax.co.uk. Please go to Edit/Preferences/Trust Manager (or Adobe Reader/Preferences/Trust Manager if on a Mac), click ‘Change Settings’, and ensure the ftax.co.uk is trusted. Also check that any security software you may be using is not blocking access to the Ftax website. If the problem persists then try reinstalling Adobe Reader, or turn your security software off while using Ftax. If you successfully login to your Ftax Account from the form and then have a subsequent problem that requires support, be sure to tell Ftax support that you have successfully logged in.
3. Allocate a credit to the UTR
When a new UTR is entered then a popup should prompt you to ‘allocate a credit’. Another popup will confirm when the credit has been allocated. At this point a ‘credit code’ will be automatically transferred allowing the form to Calculate and Submit. If you enter a UTR that already has a credit allocated then you will be allowed to continue without allocating another credit.
If, when you enter a UTR, a popup asks you to enter a ‘4 digit credit code’ then you are not logged in to your Ftax Account. In this case please return to step 2. and login.
Important Notice: While the ‘enable enhanced security’ box is unticked you are advised not to open pdf attachments emailed from unknown addresses (emails from ftax.co.uk will be ok). You are advised to leave the ‘enable enhanced security’ box ticked when you are not using Ftax.
The full error message reads:
Government Gateway log-in failure, please check your User ID, UTR and Gateway password are correct. You can check your User ID and password are valid by logging into the Inland Revenue portal at https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/home. If you view your statement after logging in you will also see confirmation of your UTR.
This error message is always correct and is caused by an error in the entry of the User ID, Password, or UTR on the front page of the Ftax form. Common mistakes include entering an inappropriate UTR, e.g. the Partnership UTR instead of the Individual UTR. Characters are sometimes entered incorrectly, e.g. an ‘l’ can be entered instead of an ‘1’, or an ‘S’ entered instead of a ‘5’. Please check very carefully. Also check that your Password has been activated using the PIN sent to you in the post by Government Gateway when you first registered for online filing.
Please read the FAQ above entitled ‘How can I be sure I have submitted successfully?’.
If you have received a fine from HMRC for failing to submit a tax return on time then click on this link for further information, http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/online/excuse-missed-deadline.htm. The section on ‘Problems with your own computer or software’ may be of particular assistance.
Click Allow to enable your form to submit. If you accidentally Block access then use the Adobe Reader Trust Manager to unblock. To do this, select ‘Edit/Preferences/Trust Manager/Change Settings’ from the Adobe Reader menu bar. Mac users should select ‘Adobe Reader/Preferences/Trust Manager/Change Settings’.
If you are being prompted to enter a Credit Code then your form is not online to your Ftax Account. You need to be online to enable your form to communicate with your Ftax Account to automatically manage the credits. An Ftax credit will enable a form to be calculated, printed, and submitted as many times as required for a given UTR and tax year.
To ensure the Ftax form is online, click the ‘?’ in a red ball, select the bottom option, and make sure the box to the bottom left is unticked. You will then be able to enter the Ftax Account username and password and login.
Ftax will return one of three types of receipt:
Success – This will feature a green band across the top and confirm that your submission has been accepted by HMRC. If you have submitted an Amended return, be very careful to only do this if you have previously submitted a successful return. If you don’t then HMRC may fine you even though the receipt signaled a successful submission.
Acknowledgement – This is returned if HMRC are busy. An email will be sent when the submission finally reaches HMRC to confirm whether it has been successful or not.
Error – This will feature a red band across the top and give a reason for failure. If you do not understand the error message (which is usually sent directly from HMRC) then cut and paste it into a Support Request.
After completing the form and carrying out any necessary calculations, return to the front page and click ‘Submit’. Then click ‘I Agree’ and ‘Submit Now’ before selecting ‘New’ or ‘Amend’. After several seconds an onscreen receipt will be displayed and a confirmation email sent.
If, for any reason, you are unsure about whether or not you have submitted successfully then you can submit again as New. If you have already submitted successfully then an error message will tell you so.
Ftax forms are constantly being improved.
To upgrade, login to your Ftax Account and download the latest version of the form you require for the ‘Ftax Forms’ table.
To transfer data, Export data from the old version and Import it into the new.
The ‘Ftax Setup Checklist’ video is a step-by-step guide to setting Ftax forms up ready for use. Care has been taken to explain how to overcome every known problem, and so please pay close attention when you watch and re-watch.
Click here to watch the ‘Ftax Setup Checklist’ video.
Ftax tax returns are pdf forms which run on Adobe Reader. Sometimes the forms can become corrupt, causing them to lose their special properties, e.g. the ability to ‘Save’ form data. If this happens then download a fresh copy of the form from your Ftax Account. Adobe Reader may also become corrupt causing the form to display incorrectly. Reinstalling Adobe Reader via ‘Get Reader’ at http://www.adobe.com should overcome this problem, although you will need to go through the Ftax setup again.
Make sure you open the Ftax form into Adobe Reader and not into Preview. This is a common mistake on a Mac.
== You must login using your email address and password ==
== Your email is your username ==
If you have forgotten your password, click ‘Forgot Password’ on the log-in screen and follow the on screen prompts.
If you have opened an Ftax form and have previously saved your login details on your computer, these may no longer work and the form will show:
If you know your email address registered with your Ftax account, you can simply ignore this (Click OK) and log the form into your Ftax account using your email address and existing password.
You can access the login box at any time from a form by clicking the red question mark on the front page and selecting Ftax Account Login.
If you don’t know what email address you have registered with your Ftax account, you can recover your account by accessing the Ftax website at www.ftax.co.uk and clicking LOGIN in the top right hand corner. From the login screen select “recover your account” to access the “Forgot Email” box. Follow the instructions and an email reminder will be sent to your registered email address.
If you don’t have an email address registered with your Ftax account, or you no longer have access to your registered email account, you can recover your account by accessing the Ftax website at www.ftax.co.uk and clicking LOGIN in the top right hand corner. From the login screen select “recover your account” to access the “Forgot Email” box. Follow the instructions to send an email reminder then click ‘I did not receive the email’ on the website to be re-directed to a ‘Reset Unknown Account’ form. Complete this form and we will be in touch with you.
If you experience a problem using the automated password/username recovery system (described above) then please send an email to support@ftax.co.uk which includes the email address used when registering with Ftax, or/and your Ftax Account username. The Ftax Support team can then manually recover your Ftax Account logon details.
If you are experiencing problems when logging into you Ftax Account from an Ftax form, by clicking the ‘?’ in a red ball on the opening page and select the bottom option, then run through the Ftax Setup Checklist either via the FAQ or via the video. If your Ftax Account password contains any character other than alphanumerics or the following characters ‘@ . ! $ % * ? _ – +’, then login to your Ftax Account on the website, go to Account Details, and change the password.
Warning: be careful not to confuse your Ftax Account username and password with you HMRC Gateway User ID and Password.
If you are experiencing problems entering data in the Ftax form, generating a PDF Copy or iXBRL file, or submitting to HMRC, then you should attach the entire Ftax form with attachments to a Support Request
Cut and paste any error messages you receive into the support request message.
This will help the Ftax Support team to respond much faster. Click here to send a Support Request.
If you have submitted an amended return without first successfully submitting (either online or by post) then you may receive a fine.
You can appeal the fine by completing the ‘Reasonably Excuse’ form. Contact HMRC for advice on what to do next.
Return amendments can be submitted up to 12 months after the statutory filing date (at midnight on 31st January).
Amendments made more than 12 months after the online filing date should be submitted by paper.
On the opening Ftax page then any section with an error or omission will be highlighted in yellow in the panel on the right.
Click on the section name to be taken to the location of the first error. If you then point at the yellow fields with your cursor a popup will explain the nature of the problem.
As well as the onscreen receipt, two emails will confirm a successful submission. If these do not arrive please check your spam box as well as the email address entered on your tax return. One email will come directly from HMRC while the other will arrive via the Ftax server. This second email will have a ‘success’ attachment that can be read in a text editor and should be retained as proof of submission. Be sure you don’t submit an Amended return before you have successfully submitted a New return.
One way to double check you have submitted successfully is to submit again as New. If you have already submitted successfully then an error message will tell you so.
But most importantly, always check that your submissions have been accepted by logging in to your HMRC account at https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/home. There will be a two working day delay from the time you submit to when the website is updated.
It is your responsibility to ensure that the tax return has reached and been accepted by HMRC before the deadline.
Currently, the Ftax service will handle attachments up to a combined file size of 1M.
PDFs can be reduced in size using the free service at smallpdf.com/compress-pdf .
Read the FAQ How do I setup my browser to prompt me to save downloads? and make sure you browser is set up to download and save.
Log into your Ftax Account via the Ftax website https://www.ftax.co.uk/ and look through the ‘Ftax Forms’ table.
Previously purchased forms may be downloaded via the ‘Download’ buttons.
Make sure that you download and ‘Save’ the forms files to a known folder before opening them in Adobe Reader. Ftax forms are intelligent pdf files and so can be copied and renamed if required.
Mac users need to open Ftax in Adobe Reader and NOT in Preview. To do this you can either, open Adobe Reader first and then open the form, or you can ‘right-click’ the file, select ‘Open with…’, and then select Adobe Reader.
Please ensure that you comply with the Special Notice that will be displayed when the form first opens, and log into your Ftax Account from the form when prompted.
The Ftax PDF forms need to communicate with your Ftax Account to manage your data and your credits.
You must now login using your email address and password – your email is your username.
Click on the ‘?’ in a red ball, select the bottom option, and untick the box in the popup.
Enter your Ftax Account Username and Password and click ‘Login’.
If you also tick the ‘Save login details on computer’ box then the Ftax form will automatically login to your Ftax Account when it needs to.
If you have any problems please take a look at the FAQ: I cannot login to my Ftax Account. What should do?
After clicking ‘Submit Now’ you will be prompted to select either ‘New’ or ‘Amend’.
Only submit an amended tax return if that return has already been successfully submitted. Otherwise you risk receiving a fine.
This error is caused by the presence of an illegal character (one that is not allowed in the submission) somewhere within the tax form, often in a comment box.
Take a look through your form and remove anything unusual (i.e. not letters or numbers or standard punctuation) – for the SA900 the ‘£’ sign can be a problem. Also check any attachment filenames and remove any ‘&’ characters.
Sometimes these characters are not visible and have been entered when cut and pasting text or importing data. If this is the case then the quickest way forward is to download a new copy of the form and to complete it manually without using cut and paste or importing data.
When you choose to print a form, the option you pick will determine which pages of the form are printed.
Sometimes, to print only the pages you have chosen, the form will send multiple small print ‘jobs’ to your printer (some only one page long).
So if, when you hit print, it looks like lots of different documents are being printed, don’t worry, its just different sections and pages being sent separately – you will find, once all have been printed, that you have the output you asked for.
If a ‘SOAPservice not recognised’ or similar error message is popping up then your computer has failed to connect to your Ftax Account at www.ftax.co.uk.
This may be due to communication being ‘Blocked’ caused by a lack of Internet access or the second part of the Special Notice not being complied with.
It may also occur when your computer does not trust the Ftax server.
Turning your computer off and on again sometimes overcomes this.
Also ensure that your computer does trust www.ftax.co.uk via Edit/Preferences/Trust Manager in the Reader menu bar, and that any security software on your computer or network trusts the Ftax server.
Also, click the ‘?’ in a red ball and select the top option to check you have complied with the second part of the Special Notice.
The most likely reason far a Communication Error:”SOAPservice is undefined” when logging in to your account from an Ftax form is that your version of Windows is not using the correct TLS (Transport Layer Security) version.
Ftax forms require TLS 1.2 to be available for use.
TLS settings are handled via the Advanced tab of the Internet Properties (or Internet Options) dialogue box.
To open the Internet Properties (or Internet Options), press the start button and start typing Internet Properties (or Internet Options) and Windows will show you the control panel to open.
Once open, click the Advanced tab at the top:
Please make sure that your system has TLS 1.2 version ticked, click the OK (or Apply) button and try again.
There appears to be a problem with the latest versions of Acrobat Reader 2021.001.20135 and 2021.001.20138 which causes Ftax forms to run slowly at times, or not to respond.
If you install a previous version of Acrobat Reader, this problem will be overcome.
To install a previous version (Windows users):
First, uninstall your current version of Acrobat Reader.
1. Click the start menu and right click Acrobat Reader DC.
2. From the menu that pops up, select Uninstall to access the Programs and Features control panel.
3. Select Adobe Acrobat Reader DC from the list of programs and click Uninstall from the top to start the uninstall process.
4. Follow the windows prompts until the software uninstalls.
Second, Download and install a previous version of Acrobat Reader from Adobe.
1. Open a Windows Explorer/File Explorer window (press Win+E).
2. Click to select the Address bar.
If the Address bar isn’t visible in Windows XP, choose View > Address Bar
3. In the address bar type the address of Adobe’s software storage:
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/
for windows, or
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/mac/
for mac, and press enter.
Note: This is a Windows Explorer/File Explorer window not a browser window.
4. You should be presented with a file structure of previous versions of Reader.
We have identified that the problem does not occur if you use AcrobatDC 2001320064.
If you wish to download and install this version, open the ReaderDC folder, then open the 2001320064 folder and copy the file AcroRdrDC2001320064_en_US.exe to your computer by dragging it onto your desktop (or other location). This is the english language version, other versions are available.
5. Once the file is downloaded onto your computer, double click the file to start the installation, and follow the Adobe prompts.
Don’t forget, you will need to follow the setup checklist again with your new software:
What should I check before using Ftax? (Ftax Setup Checklist)
If Acrobat Reader updates to the latest version and Adobe have not fixed this problem, you will need to follow this process again.
If you have any problems uninstalling Acrobat Reader, Adobe have produced a tool called AcroCleaner to help:
https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/cleaner.html