The UK’s HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has selected software company SAP to overhaul its central tax and revenue systems.

The project targets HMRC’s Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP), the main system for tax accounting and payments supporting more than 45 tax regimes.

It is said to be used daily by tens of thousands of staff to manage tax revenues exceeding £800bn ($1.09tn) each year.

HMRC plans to move ETMP to the cloud using RISE with SAP, which is presented by the company as “business transformation as a service” offering.

The shift aims to simplify the department’s technology landscape by retiring older systems that support critical tax processes.

According to SAP, the new platform will give HMRC employees improved access to analytical data and a revised user interface, with the goal of enabling more dependable real-time analysis and reporting.

The modernised system is also expected to underpin a more responsive and transparent service for taxpayers as interactions and processes are updated.

As part of the RISE with SAP rollout, HMRC will deploy SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP’s UK Sovereign Cloud, SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP’s AI capabilities.

SAP UKI managing director Leila Romane said: “Large-scale public systems like those delivered by HMRC must operate reliably at national scale while adapting to changing demands.

“By modernising one of the UK’s most important platforms and hosting it on a UK sovereign cloud, we are helping to strengthen the resilience, security and sustainability of critical national infrastructure.”

The arrangement also ties into the government’s broader AI agenda. HMRC and SAP intend to develop new AI capabilities aimed at improving taxpayer experiences and speed up insight generation.

The tools will also automate processes and support decision-making across tax administration.