HMRC will end letters in post from March 2026

In a bid to slash print and postage costs by £50m and drag HMRC communications into the 21st century, letters will no longer be sent out automatically to taxpayers from next spring, with email alerts notifying them of new documents in their personal tax accounts or the HMRC app instead

As part of HMRC’s ambitious digital by default programme, which envisages 90% of HMRC interactions with taxpayers being online or digital only by 2029-30 tax year, the Budget papers confirmed a major shift to digital by default had been signed off by the government, starting sooner than expected.

This means that the days of posted brown letters from HMRC are very much numbered with only the ‘digitally excluded’ or those who actively opt out of digital still able to receive old school posted letters, starting in spring 2026 according to Budget documents.

HMRC officials confirmed that the post overhaul ‘will be a gradual transition from April 2026 onwards, as more of our letters and services are included’.

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