What exactly have I lost?
First, take a breath. Losing a Government Gateway sign-in is one of the most common problems directors hit, and it is not your fault. These accounts get set up once, years ago, often in a hurry, and then sit unused until a deadline appears. HMRC has a recovery route for every version of this problem. Let's find yours.
A Government Gateway sign-in is two things: a user ID (up to 12 characters, given to you by HMRC when the account was created) and a password (chosen by you). You might have lost either one, or both. The fix is slightly different for each, but all of them start in the same place: the sign-in page itself. When you try to sign in, gov.uk shows you the recovery options for whichever part you're missing.
One more thing worth knowing before you start: your personal tax sign-in (the one with your own Self Assessment) and your company's sign-in are separate accounts. Make sure you're recovering the right one. Your company's Corporation Tax lives in a business tax account, not in your personal one.
The fix, step by step
- Go to the HMRC sign-in page on gov.uk and start signing in as normal.
- Lost the user ID? Use the recovery link the page shows you. HMRC will send the user ID to the email address the account was set up with.
- Forgotten the password? Use the reset link instead. Same idea: it goes through the email address on the account.
- Lost both? Do the user ID first, then the password. Both routes are online and free.
- Sign in with the recovered details. If HMRC texts a security code to your phone, enter it and you're in. Once you are back in, try your filing again before assuming anything else is wrong.
If that worked, you're done. If one of the steps above hit a wall, the sections below cover the three walls people actually hit.
The screen says my account is locked. What now?
This happens when the wrong details are entered too many times, and the trap here is human nature: you keep trying "one more" password, and every wrong try keeps you locked out. Stop retrying. A locked account unlocks by itself after 2 hours, and nobody can speed that up, not even HMRC's own helpdesk advisers. So set a timer, walk away, and use the wait to recover your user ID (as described above) so it is sitting in your inbox when the lock lifts.
The recovery email goes to an old or dead address
The online recovery leans on the email address the account was set up with. If that inbox is one you can still open (an old personal address, say), open it, the recovery works fine. The problem case is an address that's truly gone: a closed work email, a defunct domain, an ex-employee's inbox.
Don't panic, and don't give up on the account. Call HMRC's online services helpdesk on 0300 200 3600 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, closed bank holidays). This is the team for exactly this: sign-in problems, lost details, and codes that never arrive. They'll take you through some identity checks and get the account's contact details updated so recovery can reach you. There's also a webchat option on gov.uk if you'd rather type than talk.
I lost the phone that gets my security codes
Same answer, same team. The online reset can't fix this one by itself, because the code keeps going to a phone you don't have. Call the online services helpdesk on 0300 200 3600 and they will reset how your codes are sent, so they reach a phone you actually hold. Then sign in as normal.
Should I just create a brand-new account instead?
It's tempting, because creating a new Government Gateway account takes about 5 minutes. But for Corporation Tax it's usually the slow road, and here's why: Corporation Tax can only be switched on in one Government Gateway account at a time. It stays switched on in your old account, and a shiny new account can't file anything until HMRC moves the tax across. Recovering the old sign-in is almost always faster.
A brand-new account is the right answer only when the old one is truly beyond recovery, for example when nobody knows the email it was set up with and the helpdesk route has failed. In that case:
- Create a new business tax account on gov.uk (about 5 minutes; you create the sign-in details as part of signing in for the first time).
- Ask HMRC to move Corporation Tax to it. The Corporation Tax helpline is 0300 200 3410.
- Add Corporation Tax to the account using your company's 10-digit tax reference (the UTR). If you don't know it, our guide on finding your company UTR shows you where it hides.
- Wait for the activation code, which arrives by post at your company's registered office, so allow a few days. Our guide on activating Corporation Tax online walks through that step.
My old accountant set up the account and holds the login
This is its own flavour of the problem: the sign-in isn't lost, it just belongs to someone else. Your company's Corporation Tax was switched on in their account, and it stays there until HMRC moves it, which is why even a perfectly good new sign-in of your own gets turned away when you try to file. The fix is the move described above: set up your own business tax account, then ask HMRC to move your company's Corporation Tax into it. If you're being refused with an error mentioning authentication when you file, that's the same family of problem, and our error 1046 guide untangles it.
How long will all this take?
- Online user ID recovery or password reset: minutes, if you can open the email on the account.
- A locked account: unlocks by itself after 2 hours. No shortcut exists.
- Helpdesk fixes (dead email, lost phone): one phone call, Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm (closed bank holidays), plus however long the queue is. Call early in the morning if you can.
- Moving Corporation Tax to a new account, or activating it: this involves the post, so think days, not minutes. If a filing deadline is close, start today.