TAX ADMIN GUIDE

Your HMRC business tax account, explained.

Your business tax account is the HMRC online account where your business taxes sit side by side. This guide covers what it shows, how to get into it, who else can use it, and how to make it part of a simple monthly routine.

Figures for the 2026/27 tax year · Last reviewed 21/10/2026

What the business tax account is

HMRC describes the business tax account as the place where you sign in to view your tax position. Instead of a separate login for each tax, the taxes your business is registered for appear in one account.

It is not accounting software. It does not keep your books, and it does not know about sales or costs until you report them. It shows what HMRC holds: the taxes you are registered for, what returns are due, what you owe and what messages HMRC has sent you.

According to GOV.UK, individuals, sole traders, partnerships and limited companies can all use a business tax account. HMRC says it covers over 40 taxes, including Self Assessment, VAT, PAYE for employers and Corporation Tax. There is also a separate personal tax account for your own affairs as an individual.

What you can do in it

HMRC lists these as the main things you can do in the account:

Check your tax position for each tax you have registered for
Make returns and payments
Add or remove a tax, duty or scheme
Give team members access to a tax, duty or scheme
Read secure messages from HMRC
Add, view or change a tax agent
Update your details, sign up for paperless notifications and change your sign-in and security settings

The services that can sit in the account range widely. They include VAT, Corporation Tax, Self Assessment, PAYE for employers, the Construction Industry Scheme, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and VAT, and a long list of customs and excise services. Most small businesses will only ever use a handful.

The VAT part of the account

If you are VAT registered, your VAT online account is reached through the business tax account. GOV.UK says you can use it to:

Find out when your VAT returns are due
Check when your payments need to clear
Check and appeal penalties
Check that HMRC has received your VAT return

That last point is worth using. After a return goes in, a quick look confirms it has arrived. Our guide on how to file a VAT return covers the filing itself.

How to sign in

You can use the business tax account once you have registered for a business tax online. You sign in with the details you used when you first registered that tax.

HMRC online services currently accept two kinds of sign-in:

Government Gateway. A user ID of up to 12 characters, plus a password.
GOV.UK One Login. An email address and a password.

GOV.UK says that if you already use HMRC online services, you should keep using your existing sign-in details. If you are new, you choose to create new sign-in details when you sign in. HMRC asks you to do this even if you already have GOV.UK One Login details from another government service.

Lost your user ID or password? HMRC has a separate help page for problems signing in. We also have a guide on signing up for Making Tax Digital with HMRC, which also involves your HMRC sign-in.

One sign-in per business, not per person

A common mix-up is to register a new tax under a fresh sign-in each time. That leaves VAT under one user ID and PAYE under another, and nobody remembers which is which. Where you can, add new taxes to the account you already have. Then everything sits in one place, as the account intends.

Adding a tax

When your business takes on a new tax, it needs to appear in the account. Typical moments are registering for VAT, taking on your first employee, or registering as a contractor under CIS. The account has an option to add a tax, duty or scheme. You can also remove one you no longer use.

Registering for the tax and adding it to the account are linked but not the same. Registration tells HMRC you are liable. Adding it to the account gives you online access to it. If a tax you know you are registered for is missing, it usually just needs adding. Our guide on how to register for CIS walks through one example of the registration step.

Team members and access

If more than one person handles tax admin, you do not need to share a single password. The account lets an administrator add team members. The administrator can then choose which taxes, duties or schemes each team member can see.

The steps on GOV.UK are, in outline:

Sign in as the administrator and go to the account management section
Choose to give others access, then add a team member and enter their details
Check the new person appears in the team member list
To give access to a particular tax, open the taxes and schemes tab and select manage team members on that tax's row
Tick who should have access, then save

This is useful when, say, an office manager handles PAYE but should not see the Corporation Tax position. Keep the list short and remove people when they leave.

Agents and bookkeepers

The account also has an option to add, view or change your tax agent. An agent is someone you authorise to deal with HMRC for you on a particular tax, such as an accountant filing your returns.

As a general rule, nobody outside the business should need your own HMRC sign-in details. Proper agent authorisation, or team member access, gives the right people the right access. It also leaves a clear record of who can act for you. If you are changing who looks after your books or returns, check who is listed as your agent. Our guide on how to switch bookkeeper covers the rest of the handover.

Using the account with your books

The business tax account tells you what HMRC thinks you owe. Your books tell you what you think you owe. The two should agree, and checking them against each other catches problems early.

A worked example

This example is made up. Imagine a small limited company that is VAT registered and runs a payroll. On the first working day of each month, the director signs in and checks three things.

First, the VAT section. The last return shows as received, and the next due date matches the date in the company's own diary. Second, PAYE. The amount HMRC shows as due matches the payroll liability in the books. Third, secure messages. One new message asks the company to update its contact address, which takes two minutes.

The whole check takes about ten minutes. Had the PAYE figure not matched, the director would have known to ask why before the payment date, not after.

A simple monthly checklist

Read any new secure messages
Check upcoming return and payment dates for each tax
Compare the amounts HMRC shows as owed with the balances in your books
Confirm that returns sent last month show as received
Check penalties, if any appear, and act on them quickly
Review who has team member or agent access

The comparison step only works if your books are current. If your bookkeeping is a few months behind, there is nothing reliable to compare the HMRC figures against. That is when surprises happen.

What the account does not do

It does not keep your records. You still need proper books and the paperwork behind them. See how long to keep business records.
It does not check your figures. It records what you report. If a return is wrong, the account will faithfully show the wrong figure.
It does not replace your bookkeeping software. Returns and payments still depend on accurate figures from your own records.

For an overview of which taxes a small business may face in the first place, see small business tax: what you pay HMRC. For paying a company's tax bill, see how to pay your Corporation Tax bill. Unfamiliar terms are explained in our bookkeeping glossary.