Government Gateway deactivation times

In order to access many of HMRC’s online services, it is necessary to create a username and password to log in – this is sometimes known as a ‘Government Gateway account’. HMRC has recently shared some information on the Agent Forum explaining that usernames and passwords are deleted if the taxpayer does not use them for a period of three years. 

To avoid the need to recreate username and passwords, particularly for trusts where login details may be used infrequently, it may be worth reminding clients to log into their accounts from time to time. 

The text from the Agent Update is copied below. ATT members can sign up to access the Agent Forum by following the instructions on our Working with HMRC page. 

“HMRC takes protecting customer data very seriously. As part of a programme to improve security, we are deleting all user IDs and passwords that have not been used for 3 years or more. We are doing this to protect our customers against malicious or fraudulent attempts to access their details. This is covered within the Privacy notice. 

Your information will not be affected but you will not be able to use the deleted user ID and password to access it. 

We cannot recover a user ID once it has been deleted but you can create a new account at any time by finding the service you want to access and following the instructions. 

If you were signed up to Go Paperless with the user ID and password that has been deleted, your settings will not change, and you will still receive email notifications. You can access your messages by creating a new account and signing up to the service again."

We have asked for this information to be included in a future Agent Update.