HMRC Authentication Project seeking volunteers

HMRC is undertaking a piece of work to understand more about the impact that HMRC authentication processes have on agents and their staff when transacting with HMRC.

We are seeking volunteers who are willing to talk to us about the pain points they experience today along with the impact that Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) would have on their business, should HMRC roll it out to agent services.  We are looking for suggestions on how HMRC could adapt its MFA service to accommodate agents’ operating models. For example, agents might want to receive the challenge code in a different way and there may be alternative methods of authentication that could be explored.  Is there best practice for circumstances when agents authenticate themselves as a third party to transact for their clients, such as to access clients’ banking, land registry or benefits?  Do you have experience of having your HMRC credentials compromised? 

We cannot guarantee that we will be able to speak to every volunteer, but we are keen to engage with as many agents as possible to gather their requirements of a future service and understand the impact authentication has on their businesses. 

We are particularly keen to talk to micro, small and medium sized agents.  If you are interested, please contact [email protected] with your name and contact details along with details of the number of staff and clients, taxes covered and if your staff share User IDs or have individual User IDs to access online services.