The UK’s tax authority HMRC has been planning for several years now to make its system entirely digital – a scheme known to individuals and businesses up and down the country as Making Tax Digital (MTD). Digitisation of tax has, however, been postponed once again, this time until 6th April 2026.
Nevertheless, HMRC has been introducing digital tools, like its Personal Tax Account, in an effort to help make the transition to digital tax management smoother and easier for UK taxpayers to follow. But what is a Personal Tax Account?
Let us examine the services available through a Personal Tax Account, as well as who it can help and how, before explaining how to sign up for one yourself.
What is a Personal Tax Account?
You can think of HMRC’s Personal Tax Account as a sort of one-stop shop for all of your tax, income, and benefits needs. In essence, a Personal Tax Account is an online portal where your employment, tax, state pension, national insurance and benefits records are stored. It is the safe and secure digital home of your personal tax information.
Overview of the services available via your Personal Tax Account
Personal Tax Accounts offer their users a wide range of tax services useful for keeping your information up to date with HMRC, and for filing Self-Assessment Tax Returns, among other things. Below is a list of all of the services accessible through a Personal Tax Account, as stated by HMRC.
- Receive an estimate on your due Income Tax and current tax code
- Complete and file your Self-Assessment Tax Return
- Claim a tax refund
- Review the income you’ve received through work in the last five years
- Review the Income Tax you’ve paid in the last five years
- Manage your tax credits
- Manage your state pension
- Keep tabs on the status of tax forms which you’ve submitted online
- Manage your Marriage Allowance
- Update information like your address with HMRC
- Review and manage the work benefits on your tax code (i.e., a company car)
- Review your National Insurance number
- Review your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number
- Review your Simple Assessment tax bill
Why sign up for a Personal Tax Account? Examining the benefits
The most obvious benefit of signing up for a Personal Tax Account is that all of your tax information is stored neatly and accessibly in one online location – allowing you to access, review, manage, and update it from anywhere in the world, at any time, provided you have internet access.
But given so many UK taxpayers have been completing and filing their tax returns without a Personal Tax Account for so long – about 12.1 million according to HMRC – you may be left wondering how signing up for one would help.
Below, we take a brief look at some of the specific ways in which signing up for a Personal Tax Account may prove beneficial.
1: National Insurance
Our National Insurance contributions are those we make toward the welfare state, in turn helping UK residents to access free universal healthcare, among other social and medical services.
You must also have an NI number in order to work in the UK, and will likely need to refer to it regularly when applying for jobs, filling in employment and tax forms, and more.
With a Personal Tax Account, you can access your NI number at any time. Additionally, you can review all of the National Insurance contributions you’ve made over your employment and taxpaying career. This is handy because it allows you to ensure your payments are correct, without discrepancies, ensuring you are entitled to the full state pension when you reach retirement age.
2: Employment records
HMRC will update your employment records each year, according to the information supplied to the tax authority by your employer (or by yourself, if you are self-employed). Via the Personal Tax Account, you can access and review your employment records, ensuring that all of your information is correct and up to date.
Moreover, if you’ve lost or can no longer access your P60 form – which details the tax you’ve paid each tax year, and officially confirms that payment has been made – then you will find a digital version of the form in your Personal Tax Account.
3: PAYE tax codes
PAYE codes – meaning ‘pay as you earn’ codes – are the codes HMRC apply to each of your employments, defining the amount of tax you will pay each payslip (or upon completion of your tax return).
It’s crucial that you understand your PAYE tax code because it can change from job to job. For example, it may be possible for the wrong code to be carried over from a previous employment, resulting in you paying more or less tax than you should be.
Your HMRC Personal Tax Account keeps a running record of your PAYE codes, both present and past, allowing you to review and update your details if you believe you are paying an incorrect amount of tax.
4: Child support
Many UK residents receive child support and other tax credits to help with their financial situation. A Personal Tax Account keeps a digital record of the benefits you receive, allowing you to update your information to ensure that you continue receiving the benefits you are due. The same goes for allowances such as a Marriage Allowance. It is important that you keep your information updated with HMRC – which is easy to do via a Personal Tax Account – so that you receive the full benefits and allowances you qualify for.
5: Preparing for Making Tax Digital (MTD)
The introduction of Making Tax Digital, though several times postponed, is now around the corner. The mandatory application of MTD will directly affect self-employed people and landlords, among millions of others, meaning that it is imperative you are prepared to adopt it.
By signing up to the fully digitised Personal Tax Account portal through HMRC’s website, you can get ahead of the curve by bringing your tax information online in advance of 6 April 2026.
6: Support with filing your Self-Assessment Tax Return
Filing Self-Assessment Returns is rarely stress free, and HMRC’s tax jargon can quickly confuse those who are new to self-employment.
Filling out your tax return incorrectly or inefficiently can prove costly, either in the form of unexpectedly high tax bills, fines, or missed opportunities to legitimately reduce your tax bill.
A Personal Tax Account should hopefully make it easier to fill out your tax return, since all of the information you need in order to complete it should be stored directly on the same platform.
Of course, there is no point risking an incorrectly filed Self-Assessment Tax Return. When in doubt, our advice is always to seek the expert guidance of tax professionals.
How to register for an HMRC Personal Tax Account
If you’re ready to register for one of HMRC’s Personal Tax Accounts, then you’ll need your Government Gateway ID and password to hand. If you haven’t already signed up for these, then fret not, you can do so here.
You will need a couple of forms of identification to complete the registration process, and may have to wait a while before your account with HMRC is activated. Accepted identification includes:
- UK passport
- UK driving license
- Payslip from the last three months
- P60 from your employer from the previous tax year
Once you have your Government Gateway ID and password, you can sign up for a Personal Tax Account by visiting HMRC’s dedicated webpage and clicking the ‘Start now’ button. You will need your National Insurance number and most recent P60 to hand. Follow the instructions provided by HMRC step-by-step until registration is complete.
UWM is here to help
As always with tax, it’s worth doing it properly. If you’re confused or unsure about how a Personal Tax Account could benefit you, or simply stuck with any of the services outlined above – from self-assessment returns to National Insurance, employment records and benefits – it may be time to reach out to a trusted tax professional.
With over 40 years of experience leading individuals and businesses to efficient and cost-effective tax compliancy, UWM Accountants can help with everything from filing your Self-Assessment Tax Return to your Year-End Accounting and more. Get in touch today.
