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.

Agents connect from the Connect to HMRC button on the Practice workspace setup card, 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 each check ticking off before you are returned to Home (individuals) or the Practice workspace (agents).

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). The Connect to HMRC button stays disabled until the format is right.
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).

Reconnecting

HMRC authorisations expire, typically after 18 months. When yours does, 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. 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.

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.
• 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

The Connect to HMRC button stays disabled. The identifier is not in the right format. Check the letters and digits; spaces do not matter.

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.

The progress page reports a problem. Read the message: it says which check failed and what to do. Most often HMRC could not find an MTD registration for the account you signed in with.

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.