Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much public money has been spent to date on the development and roll-out of Making Tax Digital; and what the projected total cost is for completing the programme.

Originally announced at Budget 2015, Making Tax Digital (MTD) supports UK businesses to transact digitally. It encourages timely and accurate record keeping, reducing the part of the tax gap caused by taxpayer error and failure to take reasonable care.

The most recent Accounting Officer’s Assessment was published on 4 June 2025 and estimated a public sector lifecycle cost of £1.4 billion for the MTD programme. This assessment also estimated an overall lifecycle monetised benefit of £6.2 billion. These are considerable benefits, providing vital funding for public services, which are expected to continue beyond the 5-year window assessed in the business case.

MTD will also generate significant non-monetisable benefits, including through modernising HMRC’s critical national IT infrastructure for the VAT and ITSA regimes.