May 27, 2021
Article
Although we may look after your tax affairs, including your annual tax return, it is still a good idea to set up a PTA for yourself which enables you to:
- Check your state pension and history of National Insurance contributions – this is really useful and enables you to 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. If there are gaps then it may be possible to make voluntary contributions to buy in extra years.
- Report a change in circumstances for tax credits – if you have tax credits you can quickly and easily report changes to HMRC through the PTA to ensure that you receive the correct amount of tax credits and do not end up running up over or underpayments as your circumstances change.
- Check your PAYE details – if you have employment income you can use the PTA to check the details of your employment, pension and other income information which HMRC holds and correct anything that is wrong as well as view details of how your tax code has been worked out. You can also claim tax relief for home working, which will be relevant for a lot more people as a result of the pandemic.
To set up or access your PTA visit www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account.