Online personal tax accounts launched as HMRC goes digital

Updated

Taxpayers will start to be able to manage their tax affairs online with the formal launch of personal tax accounts by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

By mid-December more than one million taxpayers completing their self-assessment will have been directed to their online personal tax account, HMRC said.%VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar-tax%

These personal tax accounts, which will work in a similar way to online banking, promise to give people a "clear and joined-up view" of the tax they pay and enable them to update their tax details, removing the need to resubmit information.

The launch of personal tax accounts is part of a drive towards a fully digital tax service. Two million businesses are already using their digital accounts and by April 2016, all of the UK's five million small businesses will have access to their own digital account.

Every individual taxpayer will also have access to their own digital account by April 2016.

HMRC said that eventually, by 2020, businesses and individual taxpayers will be able to register, file, pay and update their information at any time of the day, and at any point in the year, to suit them. For the vast majority, there will be no need to fill in an annual tax return.

At the moment, the information that HMRC receives from a range of sources is held on separate systems. This can mean taxpayers being asked to give information to the taxman that it already holds on another system.

The new digital tax accounts will join up the information HMRC holds in one place.

Ruth Owen, director general of personal tax, said: "The launch of personal tax accounts is a groundbreaking development for HMRC and our customers. Remember when you started banking online? Well, this is the equivalent shift in service for the majority of our customers wanting to do business with us online."

UK Tax Authority Downplays Allegations Against HSBC on Tax Evasion
UK Tax Authority Downplays Allegations Against HSBC on Tax Evasion

Advertisement