What is a personal tax account?

What is a Personal Tax Account and should I register for one?

A Personal Tax Account is designed by HMRC in order to make dealing with them much easier. This article explains the basics of what the accounts are, what you can do with them and the benefits of signing up.

What is a Personal Tax Account?

A Personal Tax Account is a safe and secure online system for you to check, update and manage your details with HMRC, anytime. It brings together all your tax information in one place, giving you a quicker and easier way to update HMRC instead of having to call or write.

 What can I do through my Personal Tax Account?

The services available through your Personal Tax Account include:

  • Checking your Income Tax estimate and tax code
  • Filling in, sending and viewing a personal tax return
  • Claiming a tax refund
  • Checking and manage your tax credits
  • Checking your income from employment and how much tax you paid in the previous 5 years
  • Checking your State Pension
  • Tracking tax forms that you’ve submitted online
  • Checking or updating your Marriage Allowance
  • Telling HMRC about a change of address
  • Check or update benefits you get from work, e.g. company car details and medical insurance
  • Finding your National Insurance number

 What is the benefit of signing up?

The Personal Tax Account makes it much easier to make changes to the information HMRC holds about you.

For example, for parents who are claiming Tax Credits the system makes it much easier to keep track of your claim and you can renew online when the time for renewal comes. For people with more than one job you can check if your payslips are correct and that you are paying the right amount of tax.

The HMRC helplines can be very difficult to get through to so this system can save you time and make dealing with HMRC quicker and easier.

How do sign up for an account or get further information?

HMRC has produced a guide to give more information about Personal Tax Accounts and how to use them, this is available at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/courses/syob4/pta_guide/

To sign up you must first register for a Government Gateway account, you will need your National Insurance number and your P60. Once this has been completed you can sign into your Personal Tax Account using the Gateway ID, password and your National Insurance number.

To sign up or sign in you can use the dedicated Personal Tax Account website: https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account.

For more information on any benefits you could be entitled to including help towards registered childcare costs please call our Family Benefits Advice Service on 028 9267 8200 or email hello@employersforchildcare.org.

More News and Insights