What is a business tax account?

A business tax account is an online account with HMRC which gives you access to see your current position for all the taxes for which you are registered.

If you’re a limited company – then the business should have a tax account and you should be able to see VAT, PAYE and Corporation Tax.

If you are a sole trader or partnership, you should be able to view Self Assessment, VAT and PAYE.

Having access to a business tax account gives you:

visibility to see what HMRC believe is due or outstanding for each tax for which you are registered
easy access to your key reference numbers (UTR, PAYE reference, Accounts Office reference, VAT number) as well as download registration certificates.
the option to appoint or remove agents and delegates on your account
the ability to submit returns and make payments.

In practice, what does all this mean?

As your agents, we are here to help you plan for, understand and account for your tax liabilities. We will make sure you are compliant, submit your returns on time and make sure that payments have been made up to date.

However, we also believe it’s really important that you have access to this information yourself.

We’ve taken on several new clients this year who for one reason or another have had no idea if and when VAT submissions had been made or how much they owed in PAYE.

Understand your tax liabilities. We’re often asked to confirm how much tax you have outstanding. And we’re always happy to answer that question but sometimes it’s not that easy. As your VAT agents, we don’t see any what VAT you owe – whereas this information is available on your own business tax account
Appoint a new agent in minutes. Previously, to be authorised as your agent, an accountant had to ask you lots of questions, submit an application to be your agent and then wait a couple of weeks for a code to be sent to you in the post. If for any reason you can’t access your post, HMRC have the wrong address for you or the agent doesn’t have all the right information – this process can take weeks to get right. Now – it can be done and dusted in a few clicks. Similarly, if you wish to remove your tax agent – or appoint an alternative, this can be done quickly and easily.
Submit claims and returns. Through your business tax account, you can make claims for government support schemes – the CJRS, Job Support Scheme and so on.
Make payments for taxes. Set up a direct debit for your VAT account, find bank details for bank transfer payments, confirm reference numbers to use – or track VAT repayments due to you.

How do I sign up?

Go to www.access.service.gov.uk/login/signin/creds to see the screen below.

If you know your Government Gateway user ID and password then sign in – and check this is for your business tax account. If so - great!

If you don’t have a user ID and password for a business tax account, then use the link below the green ‘Sign in’ button to ‘Create sign in details’. You will be asked to enter an email address and will then be sent a code to complete the sign up process.

If you have already signed up for a tax online, it’s likely you already have a business tax account. In that case, be careful not to create a new one. In that case, choose one of the links under ‘Problems signing in’ to retrieve your log in details

Add taxes to your account

Once you have registered, you will then need to add each tax for which you are registered. You will need to enter some information about your business and each tax in order to complete the registration process.

Should you not have access to these details, please do ask us for support as we can normally help supply this information to get you up and running.