Connecting to HMRC

What this is

aligned.tax can only read your obligations and send updates once HMRC has given it permission to act for your account. Connecting takes about two minutes: you tell aligned.tax who you are, sign in at HMRC, and come back. The same journey serves individuals (with a National Insurance number) and agents (with an Agent Reference Number).

What you see on screen

Individuals connect from the setup wizard’s Connect your HMRC account step on first sign-in, or later from the Connect to HMRC button on Home. Both show a National Insurance number field and a Connect to HMRC button. Above the field, a short line says to Sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax first (the link opens GOV.UK’s sign-up guidance), using the same user ID and password you use for Self Assessment, then connect with that login. If a National Insurance number is already saved on your account, for example after a disconnect, it is filled in for you.

Agents connect from the Connect to HMRC button on the setup card on Work, which opens Get Started with HMRC: “Connect your Agent Services Account to manage MTD submissions for your clients”. The page asks how you use aligned.tax, then for your Agent Reference Number, and lists what happens next: sign in to your HMRC Agent Services Account, we’ll verify your agent credentials, set up your agent account for MTD submissions, you’ll be ready to manage client returns.

After HMRC sends you back, a progress page shows the checks as they run. Individuals then see the result: Your HMRC account is connected when everything checked out, or Your HMRC connection needs attention when it did not, with each result that needs attention listed underneath it. When HMRC’s answer was that it did not authorise the request, a Fix the HMRC connection panel appears above that list. It says that HMRC didn’t accept the connection for this National Insurance number and doesn’t say why, and gives three steps to try in order, all visible at once. Step 1, Check your National Insurance number, shows the saved number (with a show button) alongside This number is right, which simply moves you on to step 2, and Edit; saving an edited number checks it with HMRC again straight away, with no HMRC sign-in, and tells you whether HMRC accepted it, still didn’t accept it, or could not finish the check (try again in a few minutes). Step 2, Connect again with the login you used to sign up, starts a fresh HMRC sign-in: use the user ID and password you used to sign up for Making Tax Digital, the same ones you use for Self Assessment; this also fixes it if you connected before your sign-up was finished. Step 3, Sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, links to GOV.UK’s sign-up guidance and has its own Connect again. For this answer the panel replaces the plain Try again button, because repeating the same check cannot help. A Continue to dashboard button follows, and View HMRC checks holds the detailed results. Those details stay closed when nothing needs attention and open on their own when something does. A check that failed also adds a Try again button. Agents continue to Work, where the setup card shows the next step, after their credentials are verified.

How to connect

1. Open the connection page: the wizard step or Home button for individuals, the setup card for agents.
2. Enter your identifier. Individuals: National Insurance number, two letters, six digits, one letter (AB 12 34 56 C). Agents: Agent Reference Number, one letter, ARN, seven digits (XARN1234567); spaces, hyphens and full stops are fine to type, and aligned.tax removes them before sending the number to HMRC. On Get Started with HMRC, the Connect to HMRC button becomes available as soon as you have typed something, and if the format is not right a message under the field explains what is expected. In the individual setup wizard step, the button stays unavailable until the National Insurance number is in the right format.
3. Click Connect to HMRC. HMRC’s site opens.
4. Sign in with your Government Gateway user ID and password. Agents use the Agent Services Account sign-in. HMRC may ask extra identity questions.
5. Give permission when HMRC asks whether aligned.tax may act for you.
6. Wait for the progress page. aligned.tax checks your MTD status, fetches business details and loads obligations (individuals), or verifies your agent credentials (agents).
7. If you are connecting as an individual, read the result and select Continue to dashboard. Open View HMRC checks if you want to see the recorded results.

Reconnecting

HMRC authorisations expire 18 months after you connect, and HMRC repeats its 2-step verification when you sign in again. From 17 months, aligned.tax reminds you before that happens: individuals see the reminder on Home and in Settings, practices see it on Work. It gives the date to reconnect by and a Reconnect to HMRC button that starts a fresh HMRC sign-in straight away. If the authorisation does expire first, the header shows Not connected and the next thing you open takes you to Reconnect to HMRC, with your identifier already filled in. Click Reconnect to HMRC and repeat the HMRC sign-in. The same page and button serve the notice asking you to reconnect to grant new permissions aligned.tax now needs: the fresh sign-in replaces the earlier authorisation. Nothing else changes: your clients, businesses and submission history are untouched.

You can also disconnect deliberately from Settings with Disconnect from HMRC, and connect again later. If you have filed before, Home shows a notice that you are not connected, with a Reconnect to HMRC button.

Things to know

• Your Government Gateway password is never seen by aligned.tax. You type it on HMRC’s own pages. aligned.tax stores an authorisation token, encrypted.
• Arrived from a reminder link? If you opened a reminder link before signing in, aligned.tax keeps your place through the connection. When the checks finish, the button reads Continue to your quarterly update and takes you to the quarter the reminder was about instead of your dashboard.
• Not signed up for Making Tax Digital? HMRC tells aligned.tax during the connection. You can still reach your screens, but you cannot submit until you have signed up with HMRC. The header status explains what HMRC said.
• Agents: the ARN must belong to the account you signed in with. aligned.tax checks the ARN you typed against the Agent Services Account HMRC connected. If they do not match, the workspace asks you to correct the ARN; you do not need to reconnect. A practice that connected before this check existed keeps working: the saved ARN is checked automatically the first time it is used.
• Individuals: one HMRC account per aligned.tax account. An agent who acts for several people adds each one as a client instead.
• Invalid prefixes. National Insurance numbers starting BG, GB, NK, KN, TN, NT or ZZ are not valid and are rejected before anything is sent to HMRC.

If something goes wrong

A message under the identifier field says the format is not right. Connect to HMRC stays available, so you can read the reason instead of being left with a button you cannot use. Check the letters and digits against the examples above. Spaces do not matter in a National Insurance number, and spaces, hyphens and full stops do not matter in an Agent Reference Number. On Get Started with HMRC, the button is only unavailable before you have typed anything, or while a connection is already starting. In the individual setup wizard step it stays unavailable until the number is right; point at it to see why.

HMRC sign-in fails. That is between you and HMRC. Use the help links on HMRC’s sign-in page or GOV.UK’s HMRC online services help.

HMRC sent you back with an error. For example, you cancelled on HMRC’s page or its identity check did not pass. The attempt is cleared and you return to the connect page with the number you typed still filled in and the message “The HMRC sign-in was not completed, so nothing has changed. You can try again when you are ready.” The code HMRC gave is shown under it. Select Connect to HMRC again when you are ready. If the return from HMRC could not be completed at all, the page is headed Connection failed with the reason underneath, and Connect again starts the sign-in over.

An HMRC check needs attention. The page is headed Your HMRC connection needs attention and lists what HMRC said. If HMRC refused the request without saying why, the Fix the HMRC connection panel above the list gives the three steps described earlier: check or edit your National Insurance number, connect again with the login you used to sign up for Making Tax Digital, or sign up on GOV.UK and connect again. The same panel appears on Home and in Settings until a later check succeeds. You can still use the rest of aligned.tax while it is unresolved, and your account can be connected even if HMRC has no MTD registration for the selected tax year. View HMRC checks is already open with the recorded response. Use Try again to repeat the check, and Return to Get Started if repeating it does not help.

“A previous connection attempt didn’t finish.” The wizard step shows this when an earlier attempt was abandoned at HMRC without HMRC sending you back, for example by closing the tab, which leaves the authorisation part-started and makes a fresh Connect to HMRC fail. Select Cancel it and start over, then connect again. It does not appear for the attempt you are in the middle of, so seeing it means there really is an older one to clear.

You were sent back but the header still says Not connected. Reload the page. If it persists, run the connection again; a previous attempt may have been abandoned before HMRC issued the token.