Change or remove your tax agent's authorisation
Source: gov.uk (2025-08-28)

Find out how to change and remove authorisation from an agent acting on your behalf.

You must not give your sign in credentials to your agent or anyone else.

If you’re an agent, you must not use your client’s credentials to sign in to any account. Find out how to register and get authorised as a tax agent to deal with HMRC. (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/client-authorisation-an-overview)

If you’re a registered tax agent, you can change or remove your authorisations. (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/change-or-remove-your-authorisations-as-a-tax-agent)

If a tax agent acts on your behalf, you can remove their authorisation if you no longer want them to manage your tax affairs.

You may want to remove a tax agent’s authorisation if:
- you change tax agents
- your current tax agent retires or has stopped operating
- you do not need a tax agent to represent you any more
If you want to change the tax agent you have authorised, you must submit a new authorisation request (https://www.gov.uk/appoint-tax-agent). Any new authority received will replace any existing authority.

How to remove agent authorisation online

You can remove agent authorisation online through your business tax account or personal tax account. You must sign in with the sign in details that you use for the specific tax.

How you remove a tax agent is different depending on the tax. The method you use depends on whether you originally authorised your agent using:
- a link that they sent to you to authorise them — this is known as the digital handshake
- your business tax account
- your personal tax account
For taxes that use the digital handshake

The digital handshake is used to authorise agents for:
- Capital Gains Tax on UK Property
- Income Record Viewer
- Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
- managing a trust or estate
- Pillar 2
- Plastic Packaging Tax
- VAT
To remove agent authorisation for these services:

Sign in to your personal tax account or business tax account.

If you have signed in to your personal tax account, select ‘Profile and settings’. If you have signed in to your business tax account, select ‘Manage account’.

Select ‘View agent account history or remove a tax agent’.

Select ‘Who can deal with HMRC for you’.

Select ‘Remove authorisation’.

Select ‘Yes’ to confirm you wish to remove the agent.

Select ‘Continue’.

If you want to remove an agent from more than one tax service, select ‘View who can deal with HMRC for you’.

If you are removing an agent from Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, you need to make sure you have also removed the agent from Self Assessment.

You can do this by selecting ‘check or remove active agent authorisation for Self Assessment’ on the confirmation screen when you have removed an agent.

For all other taxes

You can use your business tax account to remove an agent for:
- Corporation Tax
- Gambling Tax
- Machine Games Duty
- Notification of Vehicle Arrivals
- PAYE for employers and the Construction Industry Scheme
- Self Assessment
- VAT EC Sales List and Reverse Charge Sales List
- VAT EU Refunds
- VAT Mini One Stop Shop
To remove agent authorisation for these services:

Sign in to your business tax account.

Go to ‘Manage account’ at the top of the page.

Under tax agents, select on ‘Add, view or change tax agents’.

Select the tax you want to remove the agent from.

Select ‘manage agents’.

Select ‘remove’.

Then select ‘remove agent’.

If you want to remove an agent from more than one tax service you can then select ‘Return to list of taxes and schemes’.

If you are removing an agent from Self Assessment, you need to make sure you have also removed the agent from Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

If you are removing an agent from VAT or employer PAYE and want to stop them dealing with HMRC on your behalf in writing or over the phone, you must also:
- change or remove their authorisations by post
- contact HMRC (https://www.gov.uk/contact-hmrc) by phone
You will need to provide your VAT number or your employer scheme reference number for employer PAYE.

Change or remove authorisations by post

If you want to remove your agent’s authorisation, or change how much they can do on your behalf, you need to write to:

Central Agent Authorisation TeamNational Insurance Contributions and Employer OfficeHMRCBX9 1ANUnited Kingdom

What to include

You’ll need to tell us as much information as you can to identify yourself and your agent. You must include:
- your full name
- the name and address of the agent you want to remove
- their agent code or reference number if you know it
- your company or partnership’s Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR)
- the tax reference for each service you’re changing
The tax reference number you need for each service is:
- Self Assessment ― your personal UTR
- employer PAYE ― your employer scheme reference number
- VAT ― your VAT number
- Income Tax ― your National Insurance number
- Corporation Tax ― your company’s UTR
You should tell us each tax service you want the agent to be removed from.

If you do not know which tax services the agent has been authorised for, you must provide us with your tax reference numbers and identifiers. We will then remove any tax service you have authorised your agent for that are directly connected to these reference numbers.