HMRC Personal Tax Account Guide UK 2026/27

Your HMRC Personal Tax Account 2026/27 - sign in, check tax code, State Pension, Self Assessment, Child Benefit, Marriage Allowance without calling HMRC.

The HMRC Personal Tax Account (PTA) is a free online service letting you check and update nearly everything HMRC knows about you — tax code, income, State Pension, Child Benefit, Marriage Allowance, self-assessment — without ever calling 0300 200 3300. If you haven’t set it up, you’re leaving money on the table and missing a powerful tool to stay on top of your UK tax position.

What you can do in the PTA

Once signed in, you can:

Check your current tax code and see exactly how HMRC calculated it (PA + benefits + adjustments = final code).
Update personal details (address, phone, email) — no more waiting on hold.
Claim Marriage Allowance — free and instant. Our Marriage Allowance calculator shows the benefit before you claim.
Claim work-from-home tax relief — see our WFH relief guide.
Check your State Pension forecast — expected weekly amount, qualifying years to date, max available.
Pay voluntary Class 3 NI to fill gaps in your State Pension record.
Submit your Self Assessment return and see HMRC’s acknowledgement.
Register for Self Assessment if becoming self-employed or landlord.
Manage Child Benefit — claim, stop, restart, update children’s details.
See your income history — PAYE earnings from every job back to 2017/18.
Set up Budget Payment Plan for Self Assessment to spread the bill.
View letters from HMRC digitally (replace paper).
Apply for a National Insurance number or check your existing one.

Plus specific tools like checking your tax refund status, dealing with VAT, Corporation Tax (business accounts), and reporting scams.

Signing in uses Government Gateway credentials. If you don’t have them yet, setup takes 10–15 minutes:

Go to gov.uk/personal-tax-account and click Sign in or create.
Choose Create sign-in details.
Enter your email address (HMRC sends a confirmation code).
Create a password (12+ chars, include numbers/symbols).
Set up a recovery word.
Verify your identity — one of:
- UK passport (expired less than 4 years).
- UK driving licence photocard.
- Payslip + P60 (for existing taxpayers without ID docs).
- Northern Ireland driving licence.
Provide your National Insurance number.
Sign-in works from then on with email + password + either a 6-digit code sent by text or an authenticator app (Microsoft Authenticator, 1Password, Authy — any TOTP app).

HMRC encourages authenticator apps over text (more secure). Setup takes 30 seconds in the app — point phone at the QR code.

What to do in your first PTA session

Most people set up the PTA for one specific task and never return. But 10 minutes on first login pays dividends. The high-value checks:

1. Verify your tax code

Click Check your Income Tax → Current tax code. HMRC shows the full breakdown: Personal Allowance start, any benefits subtracted, Marriage Allowance added, outstanding tax owed, final code.

Red flags:

PA much lower than £12,570 without obvious reason (probably a Benefit in Kind or tax-owed collection you didn’t know about).
K-prefix code (negative allowance — you’re being collected from).
W1/M1 emergency code (HMRC hasn’t got your P45 yet).

See our how to check your tax code guide for interpretation.

2. Check your State Pension forecast

Click Check your State Pension. Shows:

Current qualifying years (need 35 for full).
Weekly entitlement at State Pension age (currently 66, rising).
Gap years where you didn’t meet the 52-week threshold.

If you have gaps, you can fill them with voluntary Class 3 NI for £956.80 per year (2026/27 rate: £18.40/week × 52). This is usually excellent value — one year of contribution = 1/35th of the full new State Pension = roughly £358/year extra forever once you start claiming. Pay off at age 30 and it’s worth roughly 80–100× the cost in present-value terms.

Deadline: the standard rolling window is 6 years back. The temporary extension that allowed filling gaps back to April 2006 closed on 5 April 2025 — only the most recent six tax years are now fillable under standard rules. If you have older gaps and missed the 2025 deadline, those years are generally closed except in narrow HMRC-error exceptions.

3. Enable paperless correspondence

PTA defaults to sending paper letters. Change to digital under Settings → Messages. Saves HMRC postage, speeds up notifications (you’ll see PAYE refunds, code changes, and warnings instantly in your PTA inbox).

4. Review your claimed income history

Click Pay As You Earn (PAYE) → Income history. HMRC shows what each employer reported. If an employer’s figure doesn’t match your P60, you have 6 years to contest it. Common errors:

Previous employer reported wrong end-of-year total (P60 was right, HMRC system is wrong).
Missing employer entirely (RTI failure — rare but happens).

Raise discrepancies via Contact HMRC → Question my data.

Common troubleshooting

“Your identity could not be verified” — usually the passport/driving licence OCR failed. Try the alternative document, or check no blur, glare, or off-angle in the scan.

“No record of you as a taxpayer” — you haven’t had PAYE income yet (first job pending) or self-employed registration is still processing. Try again after your first payslip.

“Enter your NI number — format not recognised” — NI numbers are 2 letters + 6 numbers + 1 letter, e.g. AB 12 34 56 C. No spaces, no special characters.

Lost authenticator app / new phone — use the recovery process under “I can’t access my account.” Requires ID re-verification — expect 2-4 weeks.

Privacy and security

PTA stores data encrypted; login requires 2-factor.
HMRC will never phone/email asking for login credentials. Any such contact is a scam. Report to action-fraud.gov.uk.
Enable text or app authenticator — SMS is less secure but better than nothing.
Don’t log in on public WiFi. Use your mobile hotspot or a trusted network.

HMRC app — lightweight alternative

The HMRC mobile app (iOS/Android) is a stripped-down PTA. It covers:

Tax code check.
State Pension forecast.
Income history.
Simple Marriage Allowance claim.
Student Loan balance.

Not as full-featured as the web PTA — no Self Assessment submission, no Child Benefit management — but good for quick checks. Login uses fingerprint/Face ID after first web-auth. Available from gov.uk/guidance/download-the-hmrc-app.

Bottom line: the Personal Tax Account replaces 90% of reasons you’d ever call HMRC. Setup takes 15 minutes, pays off for life. If you haven’t done it, the next tax-year-end letter you get is the perfect trigger.