The benefits of setting up a Personal Tax Account (PTA)

Since 2015 the PTA has seen a number of changes allowing tax payers to have access to continued valuable information, which many people are unaware of.

In 2021 HMRC reported that over 14m people accessed their account in the last tax year (2020/21). That saw a 21% increase in PTA sessions compared to 2019/20, with over 53m user sessions.

Due to the benefits a PTA provides, we would encourage everyone to open their PTA account sooner rather than later. In today’s digital world it is likely that the PTA will be a source of more and more information from HMRC that at some point everybody will need.

Not sure what the benefits are? Here are the top four reasons why you might find having access to the PTA useful:

1. Checking state pension and your National Insurance contributions

In your PTA you can see your National Insurance record which counts towards your state pension. You can see how many qualifying years you have recorded and if there are any gaps. HMRC report that the ‘Check your State Pension’ service is popular in the account with more than one million sessions per month.

2. Avoid queuing on helplines

There are many simple tasks that can be completed quickly and easily online via the PTA. This avoids queuing on HMRC helplines which continue to be extremely busy as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most recently individuals not registered for self-assessment that worked from home during the lockdown were able to claim their working from home allowance online by the click of a button. It is also possible to claim tax reliefs such as marriage allowance and keep track of your applications for reliefs or allowances online.

3. Capital Gains Reporting

With the digital age growing, it is also prudent to mention the newly introduced 30-day capital gains reporting which is now all completed online using your government gateway login (this is the same for your PTA). HMRC now require you to report any capital gains made on property within 30 days of the completion of the sale. At which point if no submission is made there may be potential penalties and interest due as a result.

4. PAYE details

For those with employment income, you can use the PTA to check the details of your employment(s), pension(s) and other income information which HMRC holds and correct anything that is wrong. It is also possible to view details of how your tax code has been worked out.

We urge anyone who is yet to sign up for their PTA to do so and explore how it can help them to understand and manage their tax affairs better.

If you have any questions or would like any more information about the Capital Gains reporting process, please contact your usual Streets contact or email info@streetsweb.co.uk