Filled out the general self assessment form when I am not self employed and not the SA1 form. Any guidance on sorting the problem?
I have received rental money since 2021 as a property owner which has consistently been under the personal allowance (no taxes to pay, I was not elsewhere employed since 2021 from age of 19 as a student and I got my first job last autumn which is properly registered under my PAYE record). I had no idea until autumn 2025 this income should be reported to HMRC even if under the personal allowance which I know was my mistake. I did a voluntary disclosure form of my income from the 2021 - 2025 tax years with no unpaid tax to pay which was accepted / signed off so at least that’s now with HMRC records in some format.
For the 2025-26 tax year, I registered for self assessment to do a proper reporting of income this time and had the UTR letter come through this week. My HMRC portal has changed correctly but there is an issue as I do not have the green button under the ‘Returns’ subheading where it takes me to file the 2025-26 tax return. I called them on Friday, they said there is an issue on their end and I wasn’t properly registered on their system and they need to investigate why this has happened or something? And they will call me next Monday on this.
However I have researched further and I think I was meant to do the SA1 form for rental income for non self employed people. This fits me better as I wrote about my portal problem on the HMRC subreddit today and someone mentioned that the SA1 mentions a start date that I should have filled, which is may be why HMRC have assumed I am self employed, have started some business or something now, and will only need to file next tax year hence my portal layout.
When registering for self assessment this wasn’t a clear warning on only self employed people should do the regular form, non-self employed people do the SA1 form. On the form I did, I clicked the option for I need to do this for property income and I wasn’t asked to verify if I’m self employed as a landlord or not. This is probably why I made that mistake plus not researching beforehand.
Is the best course of action to ring 8AM before work, state that I am not self employed as a landlord but need to report property income anyway, and do they transfer registration over or fill out the SA1 with my UTR? I’m not worried about issues with unpaid taxes as my income has always been under the annual personal allowance, but I am worried about penalties about not filing in time if I can’t sort this out with HMRC. What is discouraging was when I called them on Friday, it was a 30 min wait and the advisor didn’t have an answer for why I can’t file online as I should be able to.
I will add clarification in my post and replies if things do not make sense.