The benefits of setting up your own personal tax account

A Personal Tax Account is a free online service from HMRC that gives you direct access to your own tax position, without needing to phone HMRC or wait for a letter to arrive.

If you haven’t created one already, then it is worth setting one up even if you already have an accountant, as it gives you visibility of things that we may not always see and lets you act quickly where something needs attention.

What you can do through your account

There are a variety of useful things that you can do via your account, once it is set up, including:

• Checking your current tax code to see exactly how HMRC has calculated it, including any adjustments for benefits or previous underpayments.
• Claiming a credit balance sitting on your Self Assessment account. This is worth knowing about in particular, since changes to HMRC’s systems mean agents can no longer always do this on a client’s behalf, so it may need to be done directly.
• Seeing an estimate of your tax liabilities coming up, giving you time to plan and set money aside rather than being caught out in January.
• Viewing your National Insurance record, check your State Pension forecast and update personal details such as your address.
• Checking for and claiming a tax refund online, rather than waiting for HMRC to identify an overpayment and write to you.

Signing up is straightforward

You will need to verify your identity, usually using a passport or driving licence, but the process only takes a few minutes and gives you ongoing access once it is complete.

You can set up or sign in to your Personal Tax Account at www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account 

If anything you see in your account raises a question, whether that is a tax code, a credit balance or an upcoming liability, come and talk to us about it before taking action.