Your personal tax account – have you looked at yours?

Did you know that you everyone has their own Personal Tax Account (PTA) that is fully accessible under the new HMRC Making Tax Digital programme.  HMRC launched this in December 2015, though it must have been a fairly low-key launch as it passed me by.  I became aware of it on Tuesday this week when attending my yearly Finance Act Training session and the lecturer asked the room how many people had looked at their PTA – not one hand was raised.

Anyway, out of curiosity I thought I’d take a look.  It took me about 5 minutes to access it, you’ll need to set up your account and answer security questions which does involve searching for your NI number and passport and then making sure your phone has some charge to accept an authorisation code (Mr Ford failed this last test!)

Then – you’re in and can check what records HMRC are holding in your name.  I must admit that the most interesting thing for me was being able to check my NI records and check out what my State pension benefit may be in the future.  I was quite pleased to see that all was in order.

Other things you can do are:

• view and update your personal details
• see how your PAYE income tax is calculated and an estimate of how much tax you’ll owe this year
• see the tax effect of changes in estimated pay
• tell HMRC about changes such as to a company car or to medical insurance benefits, and make sure that you’re paying the right amount of tax on those benefits
• access a wide range of forms covering taxes, NI, pensions and some aspects of benefits – and submit and track those online
• find out about Marriage Allowance entitlement, and claim online
• check and manage your tax credits
• more services to be added in the future

To have a look at your account, follow this link https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account

Have fun!

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