Online Personal Tax Accounts - only for NI residents

austinjreid

I have been told by https://twitter.com/HMRCcustomers that signing up for a UK personal tax account online is ONLY available for NI residents who have a driving license.

After a Government Gateway ID has been issued, the next step in the process is to confirm your identity.

The only option provided to to do this is to supply BOTH a UK Passport and a NI Driving License.

I am a UK resident living (as all my life) in England. I have a UK Passport and UK Driving License and a UK National Insurance number, all supplied by the UK government offices, yet these are not sufficient to prove my identity.

I contacted HMRC on twitter and explained the situation. Their response was:

"If you are unable to verify your identity you will be unable to access the online service."

MSE needs to update their website to let users understand that the UK Government Online Personal Tax Accounts are ONLY available to NI residents.

I guess they (HMRC) just want more paperwork to handle.

[Deleted User]

austinjreid said:

I have been told by https://twitter.com/HMRCcustomers that signing up for a UK personal tax account online is ONLY available for NI residents who have a driving license.

After a Government Gateway ID has been issued, the next step in the process is to confirm your identity.

The only option provided to to do this is to supply BOTH a UK Passport and a NI Driving License.

I am a UK resident living (as all my life) in England. I have a UK Passport and UK Driving License and a UK National Insurance number, all supplied by the UK government offices, yet these are not sufficient to prove my identity.

I contacted HMRC on twitter and explained the situation. Their response was:

"If you are unable to verify your identity you will be unable to access the online service."

MSE needs to update their website to let users understand that the UK Government Online Personal Tax Accounts are ONLY available to NI residents.

I guess they (HMRC) just want more paperwork to handle.

That is incorrect - you need either a U.K. passport or a drivers license, not both. That is the problem for NI residents with Irish passports. This has been a nightmare for a few years now. I was able to sign up as I drive - my wife can’t. We both have Irish passports as there is no benefit in having a U.K. passport over an Irish passport these days in NI. 

Having said that, I don’t remember providing driving license details and do remember being asked for details on my P60 e.g. Employees NIC total. Perhaps being registered with the Government Gateway for twenty years made a difference.

GrumpyDil

Tried last night and options are recent wage slip/p60, passport, answer question from credit reference agency and driving licence (NI only). Would wage slip/p60 and credit reference agency question work? 

p00hsticks

austinjreid said:

MSE needs to update their website to let users understand that the UK Government Online Personal Tax Accounts are ONLY available to NI residents.

.... if you don't already have one - there have obviously been different requirements in the past, and those who already have access via the Government Gateway appear to be able to carry on using them even if they don't posses either a UK passport or a NI driving licence.

At one point HMRC and various other government departments made use of the Verify service to prove identity for use of their service, but HMRC now appear to have gone their own way in terms of what is required to provide your identity.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/introducing-govuk-verify/introducing-govuk-verify

It's a very odd choice of options though - and it;s always been a bugbear of mine that HMRC are quite happy to take income tax off of me without verifying who I am but then won't allow me online to confirm those tax details !

[Deleted User]

GrumpyDil said:

Tried last night and options are recent wage slip/p60, passport, answer question from credit reference agency and driving licence (NI only). Would wage slip/p60 and credit reference agency question work? 

As I suspected - the P60 worked for me.

Electric_Twit

Interesting to see this as I posted under the subject of State Pensions. My post is copied below:

"Each year I have been able to check on my State Pension Forecast and Tax Code through the online Personal Tax Account. Now that I am a year off of my pension I logged on yesterday 6 Apr to get an update with the beginning of the new financial year. I used to log in using the Governments Digital ID system Gov.UK Verify. Not anymore. Apparently the Government are scrapping the scheme in April 2023, but HMRC have opted out a year earlier and adopted the Government Gateway system. Only there is a problem, you must have a UK Passport amongst other things to prove your identity, which I do not possess. Maybe my driving licence? No, only Northern Irish driving licences are acceptable!

The following article in the Guardian says it all "https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/apr/06/hm-revenues-id-rules-are-driving-me-back-to-pen-and-paper". I ended up speaking to the pensions team in DWP who were very helpful and a pension forecast will reach me in about a weeks time. I did ask how things were going and apparently the unannounced HMRC decision has doubled their call volumes and that hearsay says that having cut HMRC staff levels because of the introduction of digital services several years ago under the old identity scheme they are ill equipped to handle the surge in calls, emails and old fashioned paper claims now that they have sprung this change on the public."

I cannot even use the P60 as I do not pay NI on pension I get from employment so hope DVLA do not delay in letting HMRC have access to their database.