The contract, which runs until September 2036 with possible extensions to 2041, aims to replace HMRC's existing customer relationship management systems with a Salesforce software-as-a-service platform. The deal covers customer and case management, marketing campaigns, messaging, reporting, analytics and AI capabilities. Identity verification, fraud detection and data integration may be supplied by third parties.
Salesforce won the contract after a competitive process. The contract award notice states HMRC received two final bids, with Salesforce beating Pegasystems, better known as Pega, whose platform combines low-code development, automation and AI.
HMRC initially estimated the procurement at £1 billion during market engagement in April 2025. The subsequent tender put its potential 15-year value at £2 billion excluding VAT, or £2.4 billion including it.
The contract forms part of a broader overhaul of HMRC's customer-facing technology. In April, the department awarded Capgemini a contact-centre-as-a-service contract worth up to £600 million including VAT, intended to integrate with the new CRM platform.
The modernisation push follows years of criticism over HMRC's customer service. In 2025, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee accused the department of deliberately degrading its telephone service to push taxpayers toward online channels. The PAC found that phone performance reached an all-time low during 2023-24. During the first 11 months of that financial year, HMRC disconnected nearly 44,000 callers who had spent 70 minutes waiting for an adviser because its system could not cope with demand. Only two-thirds of calls were answered, and the average wait time exceeded 23 minutes. An earlier National Audit Office report found that callers collectively spent 798 years on hold during 2022-23.