The HMRC App: 12 Things You Can Do (and Money It Can Find)

The HMRC app is the mobile version of your Personal Tax Account, and it handles most of the small tax jobs that used to mean a 40-minute phone queue: checking your tax code, seeing five years of pay and tax, finding your National Insurance number, checking your State Pension forecast, and paying a Self Assessment bill. It is free, available for iPhone and Android, and logs in with the same Government Gateway user ID you use on GOV.UK — after which you can unlock it with a fingerprint, Face ID or a six-digit PIN.

The reason to bother is money rather than convenience. The app is the quickest place to spot a wrong tax code, an unclaimed PAYE refund or a gap in your National Insurance record — three things that quietly cost people hundreds of pounds a year.

Key points

• The app shows your current tax code, your estimated annual income and tax, and your pay and tax history for the last five tax years.
• If HMRC owes you PAYE tax, you can often claim the repayment in the app and have it paid straight to your bank account.
• It shows your National Insurance record, any gap years and your State Pension forecast — based on 35 qualifying years for the full new State Pension of £241.30 a week in 2026/27.
• You can find your UTR, see your Self Assessment balance and pay it, but you cannot file a tax return in the app.
• Scottish taxpayers see an S prefix on their tax code; Scottish rates apply to non-savings income, while National Insurance and State Pension rules are UK-wide.

The 12 things you can do on the HMRC app

1. Log in once, then unlock with Face ID, a fingerprint or a PIN.
2. Check your current tax code and see how HMRC worked it out.
3. View your pay and tax for the last five tax years, employer by employer.
4. See your estimated income tax for the year in progress.
5. Claim a PAYE tax refund when HMRC has calculated one.
6. Find your National Insurance number and save it to your phone's wallet.
7. Check your National Insurance record for gap years.
8. See your State Pension forecast and forecast age.
9. Find your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) for Self Assessment.
10. Check what you owe on Self Assessment and pay it, including by bank transfer.
11. Manage Child Benefit — view payments, add a child or stop a claim.
12. Update your address and contact details, and track things you have sent HMRC.

1. Getting set up: the HMRC app login

Download the app from the App Store or Google Play — HMRC publishes the official links at gov.uk/guidance/download-the-hmrc-app. There is only ever one genuine app, published by HM Revenue & Customs, and it is free.

The first login uses your Government Gateway user ID and password plus an access code sent by text, voice call or authenticator app. If you have never had a Government Gateway account you can create one inside the app; HMRC will ask for your National Insurance number and details it can match against its records, such as a recent payslip, P60 or passport. Once you are in, set up fingerprint, face recognition or a six-digit PIN so future logins take a couple of seconds.

Two practical notes. First, if you have lost your user ID, the recovery route runs through the same login screen, so it is worth doing this before you need the app urgently. Second, one person's app shows one person's record: a spouse's tax code or a business's VAT position needs their own login or the separate business tax route.

2. Check your tax code — and spot the error

This is the highest-value screen in the app. Under PAYE you will see your current tax code for each employment or pension, the tax-free amount behind it, and the adjustments HMRC has applied — things like an estimated benefit in kind, an underpayment being collected, or an expenses allowance.

The standard code for 2026/27 is 1257L, reflecting the £12,570 Personal Allowance, which is frozen. Anything materially different deserves a check, because a wrong code does not correct itself neatly — it either takes too much tax all year or builds up an underpayment you settle later.

Worked example: a tax code that is too low

Aisha earns £30,000 in England and her app shows tax code 1000L because HMRC is still deducting an old company car benefit she gave up.

• Tax-free amount under 1000L: £10,000. Under 1257L it would be £12,570.
• Extra income taxed as a result: £12,570 − £10,000 = £2,570.
• Tax overpaid at the basic rate: £2,570 × 20% = £514 across the year.

If the same error hit a higher-rate taxpayer, the cost would be £2,570 × 40% = £1,028. Removing the redundant benefit in the app resets the code, and any tax already overpaid in the current year is usually refunded through payroll on the next payday.

Codes are also worth a second look if you have two jobs (a BR or D0 code on the second is common and sometimes wrong), if you have just started or left a job, or if you are on an emergency code such as 1257L W1/M1. Our tax code checker explains what each letter and number means and what tax-free pay it should give you, so you can compare it with what the app shows.

Scottish taxpayers should see a code beginning with S and Welsh taxpayers a code beginning with C. If you have moved and the prefix has not followed you, the bands applied to your non-savings income will be wrong — Scotland has six rates from 19% to 48%, so the difference can be significant.

3. Refunds: what the HMRC app can actually pay you

The app handles two different refund situations, and it helps to know which one you are in.

An overpayment in a tax year that has ended

After the tax year closes, HMRC reconciles PAYE records. If you have overpaid, it issues a P800 calculation or a simple assessment. When a repayment is due you can usually claim it in the app or your Personal Tax Account and nominate a bank account, which is far faster than waiting for a cheque. You can also see the calculation itself, which is where errors show up: a duplicated employment, an estimated benefit that never happened, or pension income counted twice.

An overpayment in the current year

Here the fix is the tax code, not a refund claim. Correct the code in the app and the overpaid tax comes back through your salary. This is why the tax code screen is the one to visit first.

What the app does not do is claim employment expenses for you automatically. Relief for a uniform, professional subscriptions, business mileage or required working from home has to be claimed separately — HMRC's online service for employment expenses is at gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees, and the app signposts parts of it.. The sums are small but real: the flat-rate deduction is £60 for many uniformed roles and £125 for nurses, and required home working is worth relief on £6 a week — about £62 a year at the basic rate. You can size a claim with the work expense tax rebate calculator or the use of home as office calculator.

4. Your National Insurance record and State Pension forecast

Three separate jobs live here, and this is where the app finds the largest sums.

Your NI number. No more digging for the old card — the app displays it and can save it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet for when a new employer or letting agent asks.

Your NI record. The app lists each tax year as full or not full. Gaps typically come from years abroad, low self-employed profits, periods of study, or caring years where credits were never claimed.

Your State Pension forecast. You see what you have built up so far, what you are forecast to get if you keep contributing, and your State Pension age. In 2026/27 the full new State Pension is £241.30 a week and generally needs 35 qualifying years.

Worked example: is filling a gap year worth it?

• One year of voluntary Class 3 NI costs £18.40 a week, so 52 weeks is £18.40 × 52 = £956.80.
• One extra qualifying year adds roughly 1/35 of the full amount: £241.30 ÷ 35 = £6.89 a week, or about £358 a year.
• Break-even: £956.80 ÷ £358 ≈ 2.7 years of retirement.

That is the arithmetic in isolation. It only stacks up if the extra year actually increases your forecast — some years make no difference, which is exactly what the record screen tells you. Model your own position with the State Pension forecast tool, and check the official figures at gov.uk/check-state-pension before paying anything. National Insurance and the State Pension work the same way across the whole UK, including Scotland.

5. Self Assessment: find your UTR, see the bill, pay it

If you are registered for Self Assessment, the app shows your Unique Taxpayer Reference, your current balance, what is due and when, and payments already made. You can pay from the app, including by bank transfer through open banking, which usually clears within a working day.

The dates do not change because you are paying by phone: the balancing payment for 2025/26 and the first payment on account for 2026/27 fall due on 31 January 2027, with the second payment on account on 31 July 2027. Payment options and reference formats are set out at gov.uk/pay-self-assessment-tax-bill.

One thing worth knowing if you are self-employed: Class 4 National Insurance runs at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above, with Class 2 voluntary at £3.65 a week if profits are under the £7,105 small profits threshold. The app shows the resulting bill, not the calculation — the self-employed tax calculator shows how the figure is built up.

6. Child Benefit and the High Income Child Benefit Charge

The app has become the main self-service channel for Child Benefit. You can view payment dates and amounts, add a new child to an existing claim, update bank details, get proof of entitlement, and restart a claim you previously stopped.

In 2026/27 Child Benefit is £27.05 a week for the eldest child and £17.90 for each additional child. The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) applies where the higher earner's adjusted net income exceeds £60,000, and claws back the full amount once income reaches £80,000 — that is 1% of the benefit for every £200 of income above £60,000.

Worked example: two children, £70,000 income

• Annual Child Benefit: (£27.05 + £17.90) × 52 = £44.95 × 52 = £2,337.40.
• Income above £60,000: £10,000, which is 50 lots of £200, so the charge is 50%.
• HICBC for the year: £2,337.40 × 50% = £1,168.70, leaving £1,168.70 of benefit kept.

Because the charge is based on adjusted net income, a pension contribution or Gift Aid donation reduces the figure the charge is measured against as well as your income tax. You can test the effect in the income tax calculator.

Employed parents can now opt to have HICBC collected through their PAYE tax code rather than filing a Self Assessment return, and the app is one of the routes into that choice.. If you take that route, expect your tax code to fall, and check it against the app so the deduction matches the charge you actually owe.

7. The admin jobs that prevent next year's problem

Less exciting, more useful than it sounds. In the app you can update your address and contact details (out-of-date addresses are a common reason refund cheques and P800s go astray), tell HMRC about a name change, view and track items you have sent in, and access Help to Save if you are eligible..

You can also see your employment history for the last five years, which is the fastest way to answer a mortgage adviser, confirm a period of employment, or work out whether an old year's tax looks wrong.

What the HMRC app can't do

• File a Self Assessment return, or register you for one.
• Handle business taxes such as VAT, PAYE for employers or Corporation Tax.
• Show a partner's or child's tax records — each person needs their own login.
• Give you tax advice or renegotiate a debt beyond the standard payment plan routes.

Where the money usually is

Marriage Allowance is claimed on GOV.UK at gov.uk/marriage-allowance, but the app is where you confirm it has fed through into the recipient's tax code — usually shown as an M or N suffix.

What to do next

Open the app, screenshot your tax code, then run it through the TaxFly tax code checker to see whether the tax-free amount behind it matches your circumstances. If the app shows gap years in your National Insurance record, use the State Pension forecast tool to see whether filling them would actually raise your pension before you pay a penny of voluntary contributions.