View and Change your tax account alpha re-assessment report
Source: gov.uk (2025-12-06)

HMRC's View and Change your tax account alpha re-assessment report

Service Standard assessment report

View and Change your tax account

Service description

Making Tax Digital is a key part of the government’s Tax Administration Strategy. It will help reduce the tax gap by requiring businesses and individuals to:
- keep digital records
- use software that works with Making Tax Digital
- submit updates every quarter, bringing the tax system closer to real-time
Making Tax Digital supports HMRC’s plans to digitalise the tax system. It will:
- make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right
- mean customers can integrate tax management with a range of business processes through software
- contribute to wider productivity gains for businesses by encouraging digitalisation It will help reduce the amount of tax lost to avoidable errors due to the:
- improved accuracy of digital records
- additional help built into many software products
- digital records being sent directly to HMRC
This service allows self assessment users who have signed up for Making Tax Digital – “Sign up to using software for your self assessment” to view their income tax details, obligations, charges, payment details and pay their income tax and other charges.

Service users

This service is for…
- self employed individuals
- individuals with rental properties
- agents of self employed individuals
- agents of individual with rental properties
Service description

Making Tax Digital is a key part of the government’s Tax Administration Strategy. It will help reduce the tax gap by requiring businesses and individuals to:
- keep digital records
- use software that works with Making Tax Digital
- submit updates every quarter, bringing the tax system closer to real-time
Making Tax Digital supports HMRC’s plans to digitalise the tax system. It will:
- make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right
- mean customers can integrate tax management with a range of business processes through software
- contribute to wider productivity gains for businesses by encouraging digitalisation
It will help reduce the amount of tax lost to avoidable errors due to the:
- improved accuracy of digital records
- additional help built into many software products
- digital records being sent directly to HMRC
This service allows self assessment users who have signed up for Making Tax Digital – “Sign up to using software for your self assessment” to view their income tax details, obligations, charges, payment details and pay their income tax and other charges.

Service users

This service is for…
- self Employed Individuals
- individuals with rental properties
- agents of self employed individuals
- agents of individual with rental properties
7. Use agile ways of working

Decision

The service was rated red for point 7 of the Standard at initial assessment.

During the assessment, we didn’t see evidence of:

how the team will prioritise riskiest assumptions. Whilst the team demonstrated that they have researched and iterated designs for a complex transaction within the service, POA, there was no evidence that the team had researched, prioritised and tested some riskier assumptions around uptake of the service, how agents will use the service when they have multiple (hundreds) of clients registered and whether users can succeed navigating the end to end service.

the service was rated amber for point 7 of the Standard at reassessment on 17th February 2025.

During the assessment, we didn’t see evidence of:
- how users who are exempt from making tax digital will interact with the service if they fall into the mandatory uptake from April 2026.
8. Iterate and improve frequently

Decision

The service was rated red for point 8 of the Standard at initial assessment.

During the assessment, we didn’t see evidence of:
- where team priorities lie and which improvements will deliver the most value. It is unclear that the team understand or have prioritised improvements in the end to end service that will deliver the most value. For example, will users know how to navigate the ‘portal’, how will agents progress through the service when they have multiple client? Has View and Change been designed to address the pain points of users identified including managing multiple clients and using third party software?
- a plan for Private Beta to develop and test an end to end user journey that doesn’t only focus on a specific interaction within the service. It was unclear how the Private Beta phase will run for View and Change or how users will be onboarded to use the service in anger.
- the team didn’t not demonstrate how they are prioritising using the voluntary MTD period to ensure the service meets user needs before it is made mandatory.
The service was rated green for point 8 of the Standard at reassessment on 17th February 2025.

13. Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns

Decision

The service was rated red for point 13 of the Standard.

During the assessment, we didn’t see evidence of:
- a convincing plan to move away from Government Gateway and on to One Login for Government (OLfG)
- although the team is aware of OLfG, there was no evidence that they have worked closely with GDS or users on this, for example to test technical integration or user behaviour. It was also unclear how agents would be affected by OLfG. Given that OLfG is Mission Two for government (see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/roadmap-for-digital-and-data-2022-to-2025/transforming-for-a-digital-future-2022-to-2025-roadmap-for-digital-and-data), the team must demonstrate how the View and Change service will migrate to OLfG and how this is likely to impact the service and user journey.
The service was rated amber for point 13 of the Standard on 17th February 2025

During the assessment, we didn’t see evidence of:

The service should align to the Good Practice Guide 45 (GPG 45 – see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/identity-proofing-and-verification-of-an-individual). Alignment to GPG 45 for the agent-facing Making Tax Digital service should be considered, especially the approach of relying upon National Insurance number. Although the panel understood that this pattern is established within the department, it does not align to best practice and should therefore be reconsidered.

Next Steps

In order for the service to continue to the next phase of development, it must meet the Standard and get CDDO spend approvals. The service must be reassessed against the points of the Standard that are rated red at this assessment.