You may have already made use of your Business Tax Account (BTA) – for example, in connection with Making Tax Digital for VAT – but not yet had the chance to explore it fully. HMRC is currently encouraging businesses to log on and discover all the ways they can use their online account.
The portal to HMRC’s online services
Your Business Tax Account is designed to allow you to manage all your business taxes online, with just one sign-in. Sole traders, partnerships and limited companies can all use one.
Your BTA should summarise your business tax position for any taxes you have registered for; from VAT and income tax Self Assessment, to corporation tax and the Construction Industry Scheme.
You can use just one Government Gateway ID to get the full picture of your position for all taxes. If you have more than one ID you can consolidate these to just one ID, if needed.
There are two distinct areas in the Business Tax account that allow you to carry out a range of tasks:
TOP MENU/MANAGE ACCOUNT
Here you can manage your account, view secure messages and get help in this area. It’s also possible to add or remove online access to particular taxes; give an employee access to a particular tax; authorise an agent to deal for you; or change account details such as address, phone or email.
HOME PAGE/BUSINESS TAX SUMMARY
From this area of your online account, you can make payments, file returns and carry out other tasks. It’s a quick way to get an at-a-glance overview of your liabilities and payments. Via the PAYE for employers service, for instance, you can check the data HMRC has received from your full payment submissions and employer payment summaries, and the payments it has received. The PAYE section also has a new feature to allow you to check your Employment Allowance status.
Current pressures on companies make this a particularly good time to get to grips with the BTA. A business that has new compliance responsibilities with imports and exports the following the Brexit transition period, for example, will find it a useful management tool. If you want to apply for time to pay either an income tax or self assessment liability, or use the VAT deferral new payment scheme, you can also do this via the BTA.
Click this link for full details of how to use your Business Tax Account