It is without question that your Personal Tax Account will be the single most important account you will ever have when interacting with HMRC, and a must have!!

In just over 24 months the next making tax digital initiative will be introduced by HMRC, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self-Assessment (MTD ITSA). To self-manage MTD ITSA, authorise an accountant, bookkeeper, or someone else to help you, or just to find out more about the information HMRC holds on you, you will most certainly need access to your Personal Tax Account.

Setting it up is free, and a huge benefit to having your Personal Tax Account up and running is that you have your tax information altogether in one online portal. The idea is that having all your information accessible in one place will give you more overall financial control; even better the platform is accessible in your own time, twenty-four hours a day. This should save you time and allow you to handle your tax affairs more effectively without the need to write or telephone HMRC.
Accessing your Personal Tax Account online will allow you to:

• Manage your personal details.
• Check your tax code and find notices about your tax codes and any changes.
• View your Annual Tax Summary.
• View your tax and National Insurance contributions and find out how the government spends your taxes.
• Find your national insurance number.
• Check your income tax estimate.
• Checking your State Pension forecast.
• Keeping an eye on any tax related forms you have sent to HMRC online.
• Organise and manage your tax credits.
• Update and monitor Marriage Allowance.
• View Child Benefit records and eligibility.
• File and monitor your self-assessment (through the addition of a Business Tax Account – the title of a separate blog).
• Find a lost UTR number.
• Complete a tax return for other reasons.
• Check work benefits, like medical insurance or company car.
• Analyse if you have paid too much or too little tax.

If you are employed, self-employed, receiving pensions or other undefined income, then why wait? Your Personal Tax Account is personalised to you and removes the need to sift through anything irrelevant to find the information specific to you. Another benefit to the new system is speed of processing information. HMRC are working to cut the waiting time between applying for a tax rebate to receiving your refunds.

Going forward you are going to need access to your Personal Tax Account to authorise your accountant and bookkeeper (known as agents), or family and friends (known as third parties). Without it the process will be a lot more difficult. The Personal Tax Account will become the primary way to communicate directly with HMRC.

To activate your Personal Tax Account and take control of your tax affairs just follow the on-screen instructions given at https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account

As always, HMRC will be there to help those that are not able to access the internet or work online.