The HMRC Personal Tax Account (PTA) is the single sign-on portal where anyone in the UK tax system can check their tax code, state pension forecast, PAYE record, Self Assessment account, Marriage Allowance claim and company car benefit — without phoning HMRC. Sign in directly at gov.uk/personal-tax-account. For 2025-26 and 2026-27, the biggest change is HMRC’s migration from the legacy Government Gateway to the new GOV.UK One Login identity platform. This guide covers what the PTA does, how to sign in under the new system, how to find and change your tax code once you’re in, and fixes for the common verification failures.
What the Personal Tax Account Does
You reach the PTA at gov.uk/personal-tax-account. Once signed in, it is effectively a dashboard of many of the records HMRC holds about you as an individual taxpayer. The most-used sections are:
| Section | What you can do |
|---|---|
| Income from work | Check your income from work and the Income Tax you paid in the previous 5 years |
| Tax code | See your 2026-27 code, the breakdown of allowances/deductions, and update details that change it |
| Self Assessment | Submit, view or manage a Self Assessment tax return, and check a Simple Assessment tax bill |
| State Pension | Forecast at State Pension age, check NI record, identify gap years |
| Marriage Allowance | Transfer £1,260 of Personal Allowance to a spouse (save up to £252 a year) |
| Company car | See Benefit-in-Kind for a company car or van in your tax code |
| Tax refund | Track an HMRC-calculated P800 repayment and choose how to receive it |
| Child Benefit | Check your Child Benefit |
| Change of circumstances | Update address, name (after marriage), or contact details |
Most actions are free and instant. For complex Self Assessment changes you may still be routed to paper forms (e.g. an amendment made more than 12 months after the 31 January filing deadline).
Signing In — Government Gateway vs GOV.UK One Login
HMRC online services currently accept two kinds of sign-in: a Government Gateway user ID and password, or GOV.UK One Login (email address and password). Practical rules, from GOV.UK:
- If you already use HMRC online services, keep using the sign-in details you have — a Government Gateway user ID, or the GOV.UK One Login details you use for personal tax services
- If you have never used HMRC online services, choose “Create new sign in details”; you can create Government Gateway or GOV.UK One Login details, even if you already have a One Login from another government service
- Identity verification can be done in the GOV.UK One Login app, online with security questions, or at a Post Office. The app accepts photo ID such as a UK passport, UK photocard driving licence or biometric residence permit. See GOV.UK’s own guide to verifying your identity for the full list of accepted documents
To register: go to gov.uk/personal-tax-account and choose “Sign in,” create sign-in details, set up your access code (text message, voice call or authenticator app), and prove your identity if HMRC asks you to, which normally uses photo ID such as a passport or driving licence. This guide won’t try to walk you through the sign-in screen itself — the GOV.UK service changes its own flow from time to time, so always sign in directly on gov.uk rather than through a third-party link.
If verification does not go through on the first attempt, see Common Verification Failures and Fixes below before contacting HMRC.
What Shows Up in Your Tax Code
The PTA’s tax-code section is the most-checked page in the account. For 2026-27 it shows your current code (e.g. 1257L, reflecting the Personal Allowance frozen at £12,570), and the components HMRC used to build it:
- Personal Allowance (£12,570 in 2026-27)
- Less: estimated untaxed income (dividends, rental income, bank interest over the allowance)
- Less: Benefit in Kind (company car, medical insurance, P11D items)
- Less: underpayments from earlier years (coded out if under £3,000)
- Plus: allowances (Marriage Allowance received, professional fees; the working-from-home allowance no longer applies from 2026-27)
If anything is wrong — e.g. HMRC has carried over a company car you no longer have, or is estimating rental income that has stopped — you can correct it inside the PTA and HMRC says it will update your tax code and tell you and your employer the new code within 15 working days. Use the take-home pay calculator to model the impact of a corrected tax code on net pay.
How to Find and Change Your Tax Code in the PTA
Once signed in, your tax code lives under “Check your Income Tax” — either from the PTA home screen or directly at gov.uk/check-income-tax-current-year. From there:
- Find your current code — the page shows your tax code for the current tax year plus your Personal Allowance in pounds, so you can confirm they match (e.g. code 1257L should correspond to a £12,570 allowance for 2026-27)
- See the breakdown — click through to view every job/pension source feeding the code, and the estimated income HMRC is using for each one
- Update an estimate — if an income source, benefit, or deduction is wrong, “update details of your income from jobs and pensions” lets you correct the figure HMRC is coding against, rather than waiting for the year-end P800 reconciliation
- Check the effective date — a corrected code shows the date it takes effect from; HMRC says it will tell you and your employer the new code within 15 working days, and a monthly-paid employee should see it on their next or following payslip, so your next payslip may still show the old code
The PTA tells you what your code is and lets you change the inputs behind it. If you want to understand what a code’s letters and numbers mean in the first place — for example whether BR, K475, D0, or an S/C prefix applies to you — use the tax code checker to decode it.
State Pension Forecast and NI Record
The State Pension section tells you two things that matter for retirement planning:
- Your forecast weekly amount at State Pension age, based on NI contributions to date
- Your qualifying years record, flagging gap years that reduce the forecast
Full new State Pension in 2026-27 is approximately £241.30/week (£12,547.60/year, triple-lock uplifted). You need 35 qualifying years to get the full amount, and a minimum of 10 years to get any State Pension at all. The PTA shows how many years you have, how many more are possible by your State Pension age, and which gap years are still within the voluntary-contribution window.
Voluntary Class 3 NI for gap years costs £17.75/week in 2025-26, rising to £18.40/week in 2026-27 — roughly £957 per year bought at the current rate. Each qualifying year adds about £6.89/week to the forecast (£241.30 ÷ 35), so payback is typically under three years of retirement. The PTA shows the exact figures for your record. (See also: should you pay voluntary NI contributions.)
Marriage Allowance, P800 Refunds, and Smaller Actions
Several small claims live inside the PTA:
- Marriage Allowance: transfer £1,260 of Personal Allowance to a basic-rate spouse, worth up to £252/year. Model first with the marriage allowance calculator
- P800 tax refunds: HMRC’s year-end PAYE reconciliation appears in the PTA. Choose bank transfer (fastest) or cheque
- WFH tax relief: this applied to tax years up to 2025-26 — employees required to work from home could claim the £6/week flat-rate deduction directly without filing a return. The employee WFH claim was abolished from 6 April 2026 (new ITEPA s360B). It no longer appears as a live claim option in the PTA for 2026-27 onwards; you can still claim it for earlier tax years going back four years if you missed it. Employer-reimbursed home-working payments under s316A remain tax-free for both years
- Professional subscriptions: allowable fees on HMRC’s approved list can be added via the PTA
- Update estimated income: updating mid-year prevents a year-end underpayment
The tax refund estimator can tell you before the P800 lands whether you are likely due money back.
Common Verification Failures and Fixes
Three common sign-up issues:
- Identity check fails — the app could not verify your photo ID, for example because of poor lighting or an expired passport (the app does not accept an expired passport). Retry with better lighting; if your name has changed, update your name details first
- Missing NI number — lost on the way. Check a payslip or P60, or download a letter showing it from the HMRC app or your personal tax account. HMRC cannot give it out over the phone or webchat
- Two-factor SMS not arriving — switch to an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or 1Password). Recommended if you travel or change SIMs
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need the PTA if I am on PAYE only?
Strictly, no — HMRC will collect the right tax through your code. But the PTA is the only self-serve way to check your tax code is correct, update estimated untaxed income, and get a State Pension forecast. Setting it up pays off the first time you catch a miscoded BiK or a wrong Personal Allowance.
Is the HMRC app the same as the PTA?
It is a mobile front-end to the same data. The HMRC app covers the most common actions (tax code, pay record, NI record, Child Benefit) and is noticeably faster to sign in with biometrics. Complex Self Assessment actions still work better in the web PTA.
Can I give my accountant access to my PTA?
No. The PTA is strictly an individual-only account. Accountants use HMRC’s Agent Services Account separately and need a 64-8 authorisation to act for you (see our 64-8 form guide). You remain the only person who can sign in to your PTA.
What happens if I ignore an incorrect tax code?
HMRC reconciles actual pay to tax at year-end and issues a P800 showing either a refund or an underpayment. HMRC usually collects an underpayment under £3,000 by changing your tax code; if it cannot, it writes to you about how to pay. Fixing the code during the year avoids the cash-flow shock.
Does the PTA work overseas?
You can sign in from anywhere, but identity checks can be harder if you do not hold UK-issued photo ID. Non-residents may find the identity check harder; HMRC will tell you at sign-in if you need to prove who you are.