The UK tax authority (HMRC) has awarded German software giant SAP a £275 million (($370 million) contract to migrate its tax platform Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP) to S/4HANA. It’s pertinent to note that the contract was awarded without competition.
According to HMRC, SAP was the only party that could meet the “non-negotiable” requirements: a SaaS model and full data sovereignty within the UK, as reported by The Register. The platform processes more than £800 billion(c $1 trillion) in tax revenue and payments annually.
The migration is necessary because support for the current ECC 6.0 system expires in 2027, after which extended support will be available until the end of 2030 for a 2 percent premium.While HMRC calls it an efficiency boost, experts warn of the complexity; the current system is extremely sensitive to customization.
SAP requires that customizations should be removed as users migrate from ECC to S/4HANA with a “clean core,” which means a massive restructuring for the tax authorities. The agreement is expected to last until 2035.
