Today, the government is providing an update on HMRC’s Transformation Roadmap, setting out the progress made in the first year of delivery and sharing HMRC’s transformation priorities for 2026 to 2027.

Published in July 2025, HMRC’s Transformation Roadmap maps out a five-year programme to build a tax and customs system that works better for everyone, including over 100 commitments to enhance day-to-day performance, close the tax gap and reform and modernise tax and customs administration. Delivering this ambition requires sustained investment, bold reform and a willingness to do things differently.

Digital services are an essential part of how HMRC is improving the experience of its customers. 78% of customer interactions are now taking place digitally, with 2.8 million new HMRC app users in 2025 to 2026 – bringing the total number of unique users to over 7.6 million – and nearly 20 million people are now using Personal Tax Accounts. This is significant progress towards our ambition of at least 90% of customer interactions being digital by 2030.

The introduction of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax in April 2026 marked the biggest modernisation of the tax system for a generation, helping people to get their tax right first time and reducing error through digital record-keeping.

In laying the foundations for this digital transformation, HMRC has improved telephony performance with call waiting times almost halving over the past two years. As HMRC modernises its services, it is continuing to support customers who are in vulnerable circumstances, digitally excluded or have complex tax affairs, including through existing channels such as phonelines.

The government have also acted to strengthen compliance, ensure fairness and tackle those who seek to break the rules. HMRC is making good progress in recruiting and training 5,500 new compliance officers and 2,400 debt management officers, alongside increasing HMRC’s use of artificial intelligence tools, strengthening the reward scheme for informants and using new powers to tackle dishonest tax advisers.

This year has also seen an important step in reform and modernisation, through the integration of the Valuation Office into HMRC. This brings together two organisations with a shared ambition to deliver a modern, digital-first service which protects the funding that underpins public services and frees businesses to focus on growth. As part of this update, the Valuation Office has set out how it will improve valuation services, speed up decisions, increase trust and transparency, and modernise the administration of property tax.

This first year of delivery represents an important step towards the Government’s long-term ambition for a tax and customs system that is simpler, more efficient, and better supports taxpayers and businesses, while ensuring that everyone pays the tax that is due.

HMRC will continue to build on this progress over the coming years, informed by engagement with stakeholders and customers and guided by our HMRC Charter commitments. Further updates will be provided as delivery continues, including reporting progress against the commitments set out in the Roadmap.

The HMRC Transformation Roadmap Update can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-transformation-roadmap-progress-update-2026

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