Great to see The Times covering Ecospend’s pay-by-bank solution going live on the HMRC website, the first government department to adopt Open Banking payments.
Paying your tax bill just got a whole lot easier. The 11 million people who fill out self-assessment forms online will no longer have to find credit card details, passwords or unique tax references when paying the taxman.
Instead you will be given the option to pay by bank and then transferred to your online banking account or mobile banking app, where you log in as normal. The details of your payment will automatically be filled in, including your unique tax reference number and the amount you are paying. The whole thing should take less than a minute.
The Times
On the 24th March at about 7:03am the HM Revenue & Customs launched a little button on their website for Self Assessment. It is called “Pay by Bank account”. It’s actually Open Banking assisted by Ecospend.
This is the first embedding of Open Banking within a government in the world. The first tax authority to launch Open Banking and reap the benefits. No hybrids here, this is the first – UK government lead the way in Government Open Banking adoption.