Personal Tax- Client/Agent is not recognised OR National insurance number is incorrect

personal-tax-client-agent-is-not-recognised-or-national-insurance-number-is-incorrect

Personal Tax- Client/Agent is not recognised OR National insurance number is incorrect

4th February 2026

The “client or agent not authorised” error in IRIS Personal Tax for MTD or HMRC Data retrieval, this indicates that HMRC does not recognise your current credentials as authorized to act for that client. This can be caused by expired, incorrect, or missing digital authorisation or incorrect National Insurance number entry (It requires a “digital handshake” between IRIS and HMRC).

Do note ‘MTD’ and ‘HMRC data retrieval’ are not the same and are different processes. MTD is specifically for ‘Quarter period submissions’. ‘HMRC data retrieval’ is for pulling in specific data like employment details and values into a PT client records.

1. Reset Agent Credentials for MTD or HMRC Data retrieval

If you are receiving this error while trying to retrieve MTD quarter periods OR HMRC pre-population data:

• Go to Setup | Auth agents.
• We recommend you try one of the reset steps below (MTD or HMRC data retrieval) and not do both at the same time so you can see if that corrects the issue, if not then do the next one.
• Select the row for MTD row called ‘Self Assessment’ data and then choose the reset credentials. Click Yes and Ok to close
• Select the row for HMRC data retrieval row called ‘Pre-Population’ data and then choose the reset credentials. Click Yes and Ok to close
• For HMRC Data retrieval, click Retrieve HMRC Data button to log in and re-authorise using your ‘Agent’ login
• For MTD, go to ‘retrieve the quarter periods’ and login and re-authorise using your ‘ASA’ login.

2. Check the clients NI Number

If you get the warning for ALL your clients then its less likely a NI number issue and to look at steps 1) and 3)

• Ensure the National Insurance number is entered correctly in the Client > View > Tax tab.
• You can delete the national insurance number, save , ok to close and then go back and enter in again manually and save
• Verify that the NI number meets HMRC formatting rules (2 letters, 6 digits, 1 letter)#

3. For MTD only, check you have setup your client correctly. This is a HMRC requirement on their website: You need to move your Personal Tax clients to your ASA account and then sign them up for MTD on the HMRC site, if you need advise on this then contact HMRC Support (as IRIS can only advise this is done). If this is incorrectly done or incomplete then the MTD will not work for the affected clients.